Twin's Side
by FrozenMiwa
Summary: Just when you think it's all over, that you won't have to run anymore from whatever it is happened in the past, guess what's come back to haunting you! When Raphael helps a damsel in distress - who just happens to look identical to Karai and is chased by foot bots there must be troubles a head! / Re-read the chapters and fixed some typos as of March 6th 2016!/
1. Prologue - Buried in the snow

**A/N:** So this is my first and yet only TMNT fanfiction, I know the plot is kind of lame, but it's been stuck in my head for months now, I couldn't get rid of it so I had to write it.  
**Update:** Fixed some typos, there will be lot of them in the future, I'll do my best to correct them, even if it will take some time, just remember, English _is not_ my native language so don't wonder if I'm just stupid and lazy person who doesn't read her writings before posting them, because I do sometimes I just can't notice all the typos but I'll do my best to correct them.

**Update #2:** I decided to upload this story to my Wattpad account as well, for it I re-read and fixed some typos and added some more text I felt like should be there. I'll be at least fixing typos in the future for all the chapters – especially the older ones, I'm not sure if more text should be added since the chapters are pretty long.

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Prologue: Buried in the snow

It was many years ago, or at least a couple years, but it feels like a life time. At least it did for the foolish little girl. Well what else can you expect from a little girl? She doesn't even remember that night very well. She remembered the cold, for it was freezing cold that night. She couldn't see what was happening around her, it was way too dark for that. Only thing she could see was the snow, glowing blue in the dark. She heard nothing, not even her own breathing; it was silent night, freezing and silent night. Though she was only a child, she knew that this was it; no one was going to find her. She was going to die, and as she closed her eyes, she hoped it to be the last time, that she would fall for an eternal sleep. Never to woke up.

But it was a coincidence which saved her. A hunter named Mathias Blomgren a Scandinavian hunter, who had settled down in Finland after serving in the army for many years after the loss of his beloved wife. For he had come to that damn country to hunt with his dogs, he wanted to see if the newest one had any gifts, any potential for bear hunting as he was a Karelian bear dog. But as for the young dog, he didn't fancy the sound of the rifle, which scared him. He did know his master was disappointed in him. But in that night, he did find something buried in the snow, or should I say someone. As my dad told me, other dogs didn't smell a thing, but young Thorin did. As he started barking, at first his master ignored him as he thought the dog had seen or smelled a rabbit or something nearby. But Thorin did not give up, as he knew that someone was in need of his help. And for that someone – even if still unknown to him would become his best friend.

"Very well, you mut." The hunter said. "What is it this time?" As he had had enough of the dog barking.  
Thorin led his master towards the place he had smelled a peculiar smell, he smelled a human, he smelled blood and he smelled something else, but Thorin did not know what it was. As he found the place where the smell was coming from, he went straight to the pile of snow, for it was snowing that night. And it had been for several hours. He knew there was something in the pile of snow, something didn't belong there. He started to dig with his black paws, very carefully, since he didn't want to harm the one he wanted to save. He barked for his master to come and help him. As his master walked closer, he noticed the human hand peeping from the pile of snow. He ran to his dog quickly, for now he had understood. It was a child, with pale skin and short dark brown hair. For a moment he thought that the child had frozen to dead. But then he saw how the girl weakly raised her hand and touched gently at the dog's face.  
_"Inu."_ She whispered with a fragile voice as Thorin replied whining anxiety for small human puppy. The hunter took the girl in his arms; noticing several scars, bloody scars on her on her arms. He put his hunting coat to cover up the frozen body of the little one, hoping it would warm her up even a little, as he and his dogs headed for the hunter's cabin.

The girl woke up few hours later, finding another dog, Finnish Spitz laying down beside her, trying to warm her up.  
_"Inu."_ The girl said with a weak voice. As the she-dog noticed her being awake, she started to lick her face as if she was one of her own puppies. The girl was afraid of the hunter at first, for they didn't understand each other, until the hunter realized that the girl was talking Japanese, he knew a little of that language, luckily his late wife had loved the country and they had visited Japan during springs and summers of her life time.  
"What is your name?" He asked.  
The girl simply shook her head as if she either didn't know her name or didn't want to answer the question.  
"What happened to you?" He asked, but the answer remained the same. The hunter thought she had an amnesia of some kind as she had those scars she might have had some kind of accident which caused her to forget, a trauma of some kind. Maybe someone did hurt her, maybe it was a parent or guardian or just an accident, but she was traumatized by it whatever it had been. Thorin was thrilled to find the little girl awake, he barked, as he was enjoying himself and he wanted to play with her for he was still a puppy himself and yearned for someone to play with him, but the she-dog drove him away from her new baby.

As the days passed the girl with no name started to talk more with an elderly hunter.  
"Who is that?" She asked one night when she had noticed the old photography by the chimney place. There was a beautiful woman with a golden hair and bright blue huge eyes smiling at the camera in it.  
"That is my wife. She's dead now." The hunter said.  
"I've lost my mother." The girl said. It was the one and only thing she had ever said about her past. As another week went by, nameless girl received a pair of new winter boots and winter wardrobe from the hunter, so she could play with a she-dog and Thorin but only by the cabin so she wouldn't get lost in the forest. She found the happiness she had never truly had. During the nights she felt sad and cried a lot, Thorin let her hug him for he wanted her to start feeling at home with them. As if Thorin would've known that she would be a part of their family soon enough. The hunter called her just "a girl". But then came the time he had to return to home, to Finland. The girl was afraid of being left alone.  
"Listen, shorty." He said to that night while sitting on her bed. "Tomorrow we are going home."  
"We are?" She asked silently.  
"Thorin would protest leaving you here." The hunter said, smiling gently for the first time. "But now you must have a name to go by."  
"A name?" Girl replied. The hunter gazed upon the old photography of her late wife.  
"Marie." He said. "Marie Wilhelmina Blomgren. That'll be your name."

In future years the girl felt happy, as she was a part of real family, not controlled by the fear. She thought that all the pain, fear and darkness could not reach or find her anymore. But she was a stupid child, very stupid.  
How do I know of this? Because that girl is me. And I was a fool, I know that by now. I can't run from my past, I can't run from this. Or from you, _onee-chan. _


	2. Chapter 0 - The Rainy Beggining

**A/N:** If you aren't interested at reading some "This is what happened before anything important actually was going on" - This is something I just wanted to do, it's about Marie's first night/nights in New York after moving in. This is not important part of the story, so you can just skip it if you want to.

I think this chapter went well, sure it is a boring one and the ensing makes my OC Marie - a main character seem like stupid brainless girl, I just can't write right, I know. ._. I hope Marie doesn't seem Mary-Sueish and if she does, just tell me and I try to do my best to fix it.

**Update #2:** This time I tried to fix most of the typos (my gosh they were many x_x) I also edited the text for bit as I was checking the story before I published it on Wattpad (you can now found me in Wattpad also with the same nick I use here), I felt like I should edit some small things and I did. I hope thw chapter is in better shape as of now than it once was.

Chapter 0 - A Rainy Beginning

I was quite nervous on that morning. Firstly I didn't fancy flying, soon after the plane rose, I started to feel sick, but it wasn't because I felt bad, it was the guy next to me, he started to vomit over and over again, and when I finally thought he was done with that, he started to vomit some more. As I sat next to him, I started to feel sick, _I mean who wouldn't?_  
"I think I'm going to die on this." He said.  
"No, you aren't. You have been puking your system out, so soon there's nothing left on your stomach to come out, my friend." I said as I tried to focus on reading a book.  
"And that's supposed to cheer me up?" Boy asked sarcastically. "How's the Barry Porter?"  
You see, that's how you know he is really sick. My friend here, he dislikes these novels, it's just because some jerks at our former school used to call him Barry Porter – he is the main protagonist of this book I'm reading, it was just because my friend, Gargie – yeah, weird name but back to the point, he was scrawny, he had messy black hair and light green eyes, mint green eyes as I liked to call them like the main character had of the novels had. And my friend _hated_ these books, I don't know if it was thanks to that one bully or did he just dislikes the plot itself.  
"Where are you going to live now?" I asked him, trying to change the subject, maybe it would take his sickness away, temporarily at least.  
"At my dad's." He said.  
"I thought you hated the stepmother." I pointed out.  
"I don't like her, but she beats living with my mom." Gargie sighed. And I knew why, Mrs. Granberg, I guess now it would be Miss Eek wasn't the nicest person around, or easiest one either, I had known Gargie since I was 14-years old, by the time his parents were going to divorce for good, and I can see why, nothing was ever good enough for her, not her husband's job, not a nerdy son, who had a girl for best friend, she considered it to be wrong, as for guy's best friends should be other guy, girls would only be for dating, disgusting, huh? We weren't a couple, though many believed it to be so, and if we were, she still would be against it, since his son deserved someone much better than some Asian street orphan – as she called me. I think she was some-what racist too.

"How about you, Marie?" Gargie asked.  
"Dad got us some house to live in." I told him.  
"Where is he by the way?" Gargie asked.  
"He is already in New York." I said. "He'll be in the airport."  
"But if he is already there, why are the dogs here?" Gargie asked. I put my book on the side and sighed.  
"Are you worried about Thorin?" He asked.  
"Thorin? No." I replied. "He is fine, since he has been on the plane several times before; same goes for Storm but Roy. What if he escapes?"  
"Like in that movie Blom made us watch in Biology class before we finished the ninth grade?" Gargie asked. "You think Roy is going to escape from the transport cage like those dogs did in the movie?"  
"I don't know." I sighed. "I don't even know how it's going to work, with three dogs, who are used to running free in the forest, and with the big city and with the school."  
"Come on, Marie." Gargie said as he put his hand on my shoulder. "It will work out fine, I know it will. And besides, both of us were raised on this small Finnish town, and now we are attending some elite school in New York. I get a hell away from my mom; you get to see the world as you've always wanted. Trust me, it's going to be a dream come true."  
"I guess you're right." I said tiredly. "What could go wrong?"  
Yes, what _could_ go wrong? Everything was perfect, for a teenaged girl getting to New York to study it was a dream come true, studying wasn't my dream, but seeing the world was. But little did I know for what was waiting for me in the city of dreams – as Gargie called it. I fell asleep at some point, during the flight, as far as I noticed Gargie didn't throw up after our little conversation, and believe me, if he had, I would have woken up by it. He woke me up when the plane was about to land.  
I yawned, as Gargie started to talk about how awesome it was to be in America. I didn't listen much, to be honest. As I stepped out of the plane, I noticed that the weather wasn't any good. The sky was all grey and it was raining. Wow, this I've never seen in TV, when it was about this city anyway. It was always pictured sunny.

The airport was crowded with many people, with colorful or simply just black umbrellas. I looked for my dad, but I didn't find him anywhere in the crowd. Gargie found his stepmother though.  
"There comes Hogatha!" Gargie said bitterly as the woman with dark red hair approached us with a tall man in his 50's with the same jet black hair and mint green eyes as my best friend had. He was doctor Granberg, whom as I could see had lost some weight after the time I last saw him. He looked better, happier, he smiled at us while holding a yellow umbrella.  
"Dad." Gargie said, but didn't sound too happy.  
"Valdemar." Doctor Granberg answered.  
"Don't call me that." Gargie said and glared at his father. "Only a fool would name his only son 'Valdemar'."  
Little giggle came out of my mouth, what can I say? His expression and voice sounded funny when he was called by his real name.  
"How was the flight?" The red haired woman asked, kindly.  
"Partly horrible." Gargie said, yet again, bitterly.  
"Did you feel sick again?" Doctor Granberg asked, there was concern in his eyes, I guess every other father would be worried about his son's wellbeing.  
"What if I did?" He asked bitterly. I knew that Gargie hated his father – partly at least, for leaving his home country and marrying some broad when the divorce between him and his former wife wasn't completely done with, I found it sickening, it sounded something that would happen only in some stupid soap opera, didn't it?  
"Gargie." I said and put my hand on his shoulder, hoping it would calm him down.  
"And you must be Marie." The red haired woman said and turned her dark green eyes on me and smiled kindly. "Valdemar often speaks of you."  
"He does?" I asked, it was stupid thing to ask, but I never believed he would talk about his friends to his stepmother whom he hated so much. I turned my eyes on him and looked back at him, but he didn't do the same.  
"Only way to survive the bitch." He finally mumbled, too bad his father heard it.  
His father was about to say something, but didn't manage, for someone shouted in the crowd: "Dog on the loose!"  
This started a panic, of some kind, which I can understand pretty well, I'm a dog person, but I don't find unknown dog sniffing or jumping on me very nice. Everyone sort of panicked, someone shouted:  
"Careful! It may bite you!" But it didn't. Soon enough white long furred German shepherd ran through the crowd – and what else – it jumped on me. His paws were all muddy, but at least he seemed to be fine, as he started to lick my face.  
"I love you too Roy." I growled, because let's face it: being fallen down by a dog into the wet ground wasn't exactly in my top ten list. As I pushed him off of me two other dogs, beautiful Finnish Spitz with russet fur and quite large Karelian bear dog with usual black and white fur appeared.  
"I told you so." I said to Gargie.  
"Looks like they really _did_ run away." The boy commented.

"Didn't I tell you to lock the cage properly?" The harsh voice that belonged to a man asked. As I turned my head (and Roy started to lick my cheek) and saw the elderly man standing there, with a worn hunting jacket and greyish hair, no smile came to his lips.  
"Hey, dad." I said. "Get off of me, Roy you silly dog." As I pushed the dog off of me _again_, Gargie pulled me up.  
"You ok?" He asked.  
"Pretty much, little wet though." I said.  
"How beautiful dogs." The red haired woman said and approached Thorin, who growled at her.  
"Sorry, he doesn't fancy strangers." I said.  
"Come on then, I don't fancy getting wet here." Dad said with his non-friendly tone.  
"But my stuff." I reminded him.  
"I put them in the car already." Dad said. "Come on."  
"Well, it was nice to meeting you, Mrs. Granberg." I said as I followed my dad. "See you at school, Gargie."  
"That sounds exciting." Gargie sighed sarcastically.  
"It really does!" I said. For once, I was excited of going into the school. I never liked the school back in Finland, but maybe, just maybe this time it would work out better.

Dad had found us a nice house, not too close to the heart of New York, since he didn't like crowded or noisy places or the company in anyway, since he was a bit of loner. My room was nice, not too big or too small, just the way I liked it. Dad had put my school uniform on my bed, to make sure I noticed it. I was really looking forward of using it, since they never used school uniforms in Finland – and because of that more popular – as the term was tended to bully other for wearing the "wrong kind" of clothes, pretty stupid, but that's just the way it was.

I didn't sleep well at night. I was worried about the next day at my new school; I never slept well in foreign places. Though Storm – the Finnish Spitz, was sleeping right beside me as she had done for years, I still couldn't sleep. The morning came and I was as tired as ever. Storm woke me up as usual: licking my face. I dressed up in my school uniform, it was kind of nice looking actually, it consisted of a black long sleeved shirt, maroon vest, dark red necktie with dark grey stripes and a dark grey quite short skirt with black plaid pattern and a maroon stripe on the hem. Sure, I could go to the school with this; I have to admit that I did add little something. I put dark grey tights on, just in case. There could be cold outside. My hair was as usual, a mess. I managed to tame them a little bit and tie them back with braids.

As for the school, it was a huge building at the center of Manhattan painted with yellow. There were many people outside; I noticed that many of the girls had covered their faces with a thick layer of make-up. As I went inside, there were some other girls, covered with make-up as well, as I stepped inside they stared at me for a second and then started talking, as I didn't even exist. Fine, I didn't find talking to the strangers being very nice. It was very annoying and awkward. I looked for Gargie, but of course he wasn't there. I just hoped he wouldn't be late as he tended to be, it was our first day and all. Then I started to look around, the entry was very large and had some size on it, there was the coat rack and a mirror, the canteen was also nearby, it seemed very large as I looked at it, I didn't even see it fully. Then the moment I had feared came. Some elderly woman told us to come into the corridor next to the stairs. She put us standing in a row, which I hated, was this really necessary? I had been doing this before, when I entered the middle school. And then, there was a bunch of teachers, mostly women, some looked really strict, and few men, who looked just ordinary. Every teacher would stand in front of the bunch of students, present herself or himself and tell what class she'll or he'll be in charge of and who should be in his or her class. It took a long time, until it was just me and a bunch of boys – but no Gargie – left. In front of us stood the only male teacher, who had a large belly and bit longer light brown hair.  
"Name is Thorsten Ek; I'm being in charge of the class 13." Oh, great. What an unlucky class we're going to be. And then it started. I could feel my legs starting tremble and my belly starting to move around with my breakfast.  
"Blomgren." He called, and I had no other choice that to step forward.  
"Carlsen." From behind me, stepped a tiny boy with straw yellow hair, he looked down on his shoes.  
"Granberg."  
"Here!" Gargie shouted at the door and run to the corridor. "Sorry I'm late."  
"No problem." The teacher said. "Frisk." A tall boy with a blonde hair and a cap stood forward and yawned.  
"Holt." Another boy who had a blonde hair stepped forward, he looked almost exactly like the previous one but had green eyes instead of blue.  
"Olsen." Another tiny guy stepped forward; he had light brown messy hair. Until there was only one guy left, and I knew who he was, Johannes Ström from the same middle school as me and Gargie. He was a large muscular guy with light brown longer hair that reached his neck and light blue eyes.  
It seemed that I was the only girl in the class. Well, at least there couldn't be same problems as with my former class.  
"This school is full of pretty girls, and this is what we get?" Said the blonde guy with baseball cap.  
"Well excuse me." I mumbled. Seriously? If my face was that horrible to look at, no one was forcing him to do so.  
"Marie!" Gargie shouted, almost right away and put his trembling arm around my neck. "This is horrible! Look at what I'm wearing! This is a murder!"  
"Didn't you know about the school uniforms?" I asked.  
"Nope!" He said with a high-pitched voice. "I wake up and Hogatha comes into my room and tells me to wear this clown costume!"  
I looked at him, his outfit was exactly like mine was, without a skirt of course, he had dark grey jeans with a black plaid pattern instead.

"Come on." Said the teacher. "Let's get to the class."  
"Do we have to?" Asked the baseball cap guy.  
"No, we can stay here for the whole day." I said to him sarcastically.  
"Was that sarcasm?" He asked.  
"Don't know." Gargie said. "Was it, Marie?"  
"Who knows?" I sighed. We followed the teacher as he went up the stairs one time and then a second. All the doors were painted dark grey and there was a code in every door, such as "314" or something. Our home room was in the class 317. It was a regular class with lots of tables and computers. Yeah, I know, it doesn't sound like your everyday classroom, but yet again, this wasn't your typical high school. I decided to sat in the first table, Gargie sat right behind me and right next to me, sat the baseball cap dude.  
"Listen up everybody." The teacher said, as he walked the rear of the room, as I looked back, I noticed that there was a teacher's table. That was strange, I had never seen a teacher sitting behind the students.  
"You know why you are here." Teacher said. "Or do you?"  
"No." Said the baseball cap dude.  
"You should already know that the school you're in is an elite school, where only few are accepted in."  
"And how did we get here?" The baseball cap dude asked, few guys laughed at the back.  
Teacher ignored him and continued his speech. "This isn't a normal high school."  
"Aww." Some sighed behind me.  
"In here, you sort of study yourself a job – that would be the easiest way to describe it. And you lady and gentlemen, have chosen a fine art of fixing computers." I know what you're thinking; the main character must be some weird geek. Well what can I say; this is what I'm good at. And besides if my plan A wouldn't work out, this would be what I were to do as I graduated here.

The day wasn't that bad, our homeroom teacher seemed like a nice, not too strict guy. But my day didn't end as the school did, not at all. As I went home to get my outfit – for ballet, it wasn't any fancy tutu dress, what you could see in the finest ballets, it consisted of this white leotard and worn ballet shoes which used to be white, like my pointe shoes but they were worn out, I needed to get the new ones someday soon, before I would break these while dancing. I took Storm for a walk; I would leave her with Gargie as I would go to my very first ballet lesson in New York. Gargie was kind of pleased to see me and Storm.  
"There is too much romance going on at home, it's yucky!" He said.  
"Why wouldn't you take Storm home with you?" I asked. "Just return her to me when I'm done with the lesson."  
"What do you say, Storm?" Gargie asked from the dog. "Wanna go see the witch?"  
I sighed. I didn't think she could be that bad, Gargie just was mad at his father, though he wouldn't admit it, for choosing the red haired woman over his son, but at least his father was trying to make it right. As I gave Storm to him, I noticed how my feet turned like they were an over cooked pasta, we were standing in front of the ballet studio and I could feel a bunch of butterflies flying inside my belly, like they always did when I was going for some place unknown to me, like the new ballet company. Sure I had danced ever since I was nine years old, but I still didn't feel any self-confidence at the moment. As Gargie was gone, I noticed that I didn't have to go in by myself. At the door there was standing a woman, probably at her late 40's, with pale and sharp featured face, her hair was as grey as iron and her eyes were dark brown, so dark that they looked like black, but they were still very observant.  
"_Mademoiselle Blomgren_, I presume?" She said, there was a French accent in her voice.  
"Yes." I said. "Are you.."  
"Madame Perrault." She presented herself. "I'm in the charge of the ballet company where you're about to join. You may call me _Madame_ as the other dancers do."  
"Yes." I said, but quickly I added. "Madame." as I didn't want to present myself as rude person.  
"Follow me." She said. "I'll show you around." I followed her inside. As we passed the entry, she started talking.  
"I wouldn't consider of taking new ballerinas unless this wouldn't be a request made by Mrs. Inoue."  
"I understand." I replied.  
"So consider yourself lucky, she does not praise anybody without a reason. As I understood this would be worth it."  
I knew it already, I simply nodded, though I wanted to add that it was still Miss Inoue, she had not married anyone and as she said she never will.  
"Do not expect me to pay you any favors just because she taught you."  
"I do not. That's not why I am here. If you talked with her you should know it by now." I replied. Did this lady really think I got here just because of my _sensei_? Did she think I wasn't hard working enough? Could this be that kind of school or company where you got in when your parents paid for it enough?  
"She mentioned you have some temper. But weren't it for that scandal..."  
"She mentioned it." I replied.  
"We wouldn't need another dancer, do you understand?"  
"Yes, Madame." I said.  
"Any of my girls does not use drugs, do you understand?"  
She was only playing though with me, but luckily she didn't scare me. And why did she have to use the understand-phrase all the time? I wasn't that stupid looking was I?  
"Madame, with all due respect, I have never touched drugs, but I have read what they do for the dancer that uses them. I want you to know, that I want to be good, really good, and that's why I don't get these people who do drugs while being on the top."  
I shut my mouth, as she looked at me strictly, as if she was trying to see, was I lying or not.  
"Well at least we're on the same page mademoiselle Blomgren." She finally said. As she showed me the hall where we would do our dancing she led me straight to the dressing room. Even from the door I could here there was a gossiping session going on inside. However when Madame stepped in everybody stopped talking.  
"This is Marie Blomgren, from Finland." She said with a strict voice. "She'll be covering Jessica's place from now on."  
"But what about when Jessica comes back from the detoxification?" Asked the girl at the center of all other dancers, as if she was their queen or something.  
"She won't be coming back to this company, mademoiselle King." Madame said strictly. "Now, hurry up. Meet me in the hall in ten minutes."

As she walked away, I managed to find myself a lonely place, since every other dancer was going on with the gossip again, but soon did I notice, that the gossip – or talking, whatever they called it – was about me.  
"Did she say Finnish?" Someone whispered. "She looks like an Asian to me."  
"Maybe she's half-Asian." Someone said behind me.  
"Or some poor street orphan from China." Said the girl who spoke earlier, the queen bee. "You know, they throw baby girls in the river sometimes."  
Alright, I disliked these girls. Was that all they had in mind?  
As I started to dress up in my leotard some girls started to sigh like they would over react to something, then the whispering started again. And I knew what it was about this time.  
"Where did she get those?"  
"Did you see the ones she has on her back?"  
"Where did she get them? Especially that big one..."  
"Gosh, they look ugly.."  
"You do realize I can hear you, right?" I said sarcastically.  
"So what?" The queen bee said as she was tying her dark brown hair in a bun behind her head  
"Why won't you speak a loud, or don't you have guts for that?" I asked and faced the amber eyed girl this so called queen. I put my hair up in a messy bun and walked out of the dressing room with my worn ballet shoes.

The lesson went pretty well, if I don't count that fail or should say fall in the end of the lesson. We were supposed to show our pirouettes to Madame. When it was my turn, I managed to spin around just one time, and then I stumbled and fell to my knees.  
"Very well, you need more practice." She said to me as I returned to the line, the amber eyed devil smirked at me in nasty way. I don't care about what she thought, I don't. As I watched her doing the move perfectly, I got to admit, I envied her little bit. But I just have to make this right. I'll learn, I must learn. Of course, this was all they talked about in the dressing room.  
"Jessica was so much better than her." Someone said.  
"I know, right?"  
I sighed. _I hate you guys, actually I already knew that. But I'm not going to be the best friends with any of you, so that's ok, I'll just ignore you. Soon you have no reason to laugh at me_, I promised to myself. As I changed back to my school uniform – yes, I still wore it and quickly let my hair down. I didn't even bother making braids; I just let it be as it was. I didn't want to spend any more time with these people that I had to.

Luckily Gargie was already outside with Storm, who barked thrilled as she saw me coming, I hurried to them and stroked her fur.  
"Who's my good girl?" I asked gently.  
"The witch liked her." Gargie said. "Can I bring Thorin next time?" And he grinned, as he knew as well as I did, that Thorin wouldn't let him to walk him, he was way too stubborn to let anyone else than a family member to walk him. But he wouldn't like Gargie's stepmother for sure, he just hated strangers.  
"Well, I need to get going." I said as I took the leash from Gargie. "See you tomorrow."  
I didn't want to be around anybody right now. What do I need to say? I was disappointed in myself. I should be able to do that move without failing and still I didn't. As we came across the dark alley I told Storm:  
"Let's go this way, it's a short cut." I didn't know if it was, I just needed walk around to calm myself down and let the failure to wash itself away. As we walked on the alley, there was no one around – or so I thought. Near the trash cans there was someone – or something sitting in front of them. I didn't see what it was exactly but it was huge and.. spiky? I was pretty sure it wasn't all human, but it was dark and I couldn't see clearly. It growled at me, wanting me to get away, and believe me I was going to, but then this stupid feeling came. Can you guess what it was? It was the feeling which killed many innocent and stupid school girls – people like myself, in the horror movies. Yes, it was curiosity. I approached the thing slowly, as dad had taught me to do, if I ever came a cross angry dog. Storm did that too, she wasn't afraid though, she just squeaked carefully. There was a dead silence, no one didn't say anything. What I should've said?  
"Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you."? That sounded stupid and lame. I knew I should've been scared, but as I get closer and my eyes were adjusted to the darkness I saw the creature or whatever it was, was bleeding, it was hurt and probably, yes just probably it wouldn't attack me. I blinked my eyes and looked at it, and it looked back.  
I felt like it had asked: _Aren't you scared?_  
Of course I'm scared of many things, but right now, I wasn't – but just because I was a fool who should've known to run away in situations like this, yet I didn't.


	3. Chapter 1 - Mad man in reptile costume

**A/N:** Yay, the first chapter! I really liked writing this one - I got lot of help from ArizunoShojo, thank you very much!  
I think this chapter came out pretty nicely though I suck at writing fighting scenes. If you have hints how I could do better writing them or any ideas for the story itself, I would like to hear. And do warn me if Marie seems to be becoming a Mary-Sue.

**Update:** I fixed some typos I could find and there was quite many of them. I also changed some small things, like the Finnish phrases Marie uses.

* * *

First chapter: Mad man in reptile costume

Let's get this straight; when I first moved into this city, no one didn't mention anything, about being hunted by a creepy robot or being stalked by some crazy, human sized turtle. I know what it sounds like, it's crazy, but then again, this whole night has been crazy. As I ran down the street with Thorin, watching my back every now and then, good news: the robot is gone, for now at least, but I had this feeling, I was pretty sure that the other one was somewhere nearby. Thorin was restless, I guess he sensed it too.  
"Don't worry, it'll be alright." I said. But it was pretending, nothing more. We weren't safe, but what could I do? Go home? There was no one to help me, dad had gone to this stupid hunting trip and as for the neighbors, I didn't feel like running to them either. If I told them some crazy big turtle armed with whatever pointy things, was after me, they would honestly think me as some lunatic. I was tired, once again I couldn't get enough sleep, and ballet lessons were getting harder and with the regular school, and now with the running...

In the end I found myself in the same place, I often went to. It was my secret, it was near the small river, I like sitting by the water, and it usually calmed me down. As I sat down and removed my pointe shoes, my feet hurt – those shoes were not meant to be worn while running. I sank my aching feet in the water, it seemed to cool them down, and for the moment it felt like the best feeling ever. I know what you are thinking. Since when did New York become the home of all this madness? I let you know that I've only lived here for two months, so I honestly don't know. All I was meant to do was make it out from my ballet lessons alive, meet up with my friends and then go home. But plans changed, it's kind of a long story actually.

It all began at this very boring place, I'm quite of sure that all of you have been there. It was called school. Don't get me wrong, I usually liked school kind of, but today I was really tired, and Nils – the guy who sat beside me, annoyed me more than he usually did. He was very loud pretty much always when he talked or sat or did anything, but he was especially loud when he was playing some stupid game online, which he did quite often. He rarely did any studying, he only played with his gang, Danish boy called Casper, who looked just like Nils but with green eyes and Norwegian guy called Emil, who was more of the silent type, they would come to the classes when they pleased, but they didn't let others to study peacefully, they were always shouting at each other, and our homeroom teacher, didn't mind, though he sometimes glared at them, but he never said anything. I may sound like some geek with no life, but when you needed to focus on something, someone shouting right beside your left ear didn't help out.  
"God dammit!" I shouted, when Nils was going to praise his awesome gaming skills.  
"What is it, Mama?" The blonde haired guy asked, grinning at me. He had called me that ever since the first school day.  
"I'm so not your mama." I said to him annoyed.  
"Sounds like someone does miss his mama." The voice behind my back said jokingly and made the whole class laugh silently. I turned my head and smiled to the black haired boy, he smirked back at me.  
"I so do not." Nils said loudly. "She's annoying, always hugging and kissing me, like I was some little brat."  
"Be grateful that you still have a mom." Said a tiny boy from the next row. Some of us had never even met our mothers. I turned my face back to the computer screen, only to growl out with frustration.  
"Do me a favor Nils, and tell me what does that mean."  
"What does?" Nils asked and for once he took his eyes off of his own screen and looked into the other screen. "Oh those. It's Swedish."  
"I know!" I almost shouted at him. "But what do they mean?"  
"Who knows?" The boy asked as he turned his face back to his game.  
"Would it be impossible for you to help me even this once?" I asked him.  
"Can't. Need to finish this level." He said without even looking at me. _Nils, I dislike you_, I said to myself. And I really did, he hadn't done anything but gotten on my nerves from the beginning. Well I'm glad I wasn't supposed to get along with everybody in this god dammed class. I head steps from behind me, and as I turned around, I saw Oliver, with his messy – today even messier straw colored hair.  
"Um, my mom was Swedish-Finnish; I could try to help you out." He said while looking down at his shoes. "I know little Swedish, but maybe it helps."  
"At least you're willing to help." I smiled at him before I glared at Nils. "Unlike some."  
Well, it turned out Oliver did know Swedish some-what better than I did, and we managed to turn the operation system back to English.  
"Um, I was wondering." Oliver said awkwardly.  
"What?" I asked.  
"Would you guys like to come over today?" He meant me and Gargie of course, since we had sort of hanged out together during school hours since we started school here. "My uncle is sort of curious to know with who I hang out with."  
"We can come over this night." Gargie suggested. "After Marie's ballet classes, right?" He watched me hopefully, so he wouldn't have to deal with his stepmother  
"I suppose we can." I sighed. "It will be late though."  
"That's alright." Oliver said happily. "My uncle will be at work till late anyway."

I was meant to meet with them after the ballet class, but something came up. I had one of my three dogs with me as I always did during the night; I didn't feel safe walking home alone, so I took Thorin, our huge Karelian bear dog with me. Usually Gargie would have taken my dog with him during my classes, but Thorin he wouldn't. He was hard one to take care of, if you were a stranger to him.  
"Madame Perrault is going to kill me." I sighed.  
"No she's not." Gargie said happily.  
"Yes, she is." I growled. "She hates dogs."  
"She won't know it's yours." Gargie said.  
"Oh, yes – she will." I said as I departed and went in the same alley I had used as a short cut to the ballet studio for few months. Thorin was following me of course, it wasn't his first visit here, we both knew exactly where we were going, just straight ahead, this alley was bigger than you would think, and it was easy to get lost in here, that's why you just have to follow the path. It was really dark; there was nothing that could lighten this place up, or now that I think about it, there should be a street light but it wasn't working anyway. I heard some steps behind me, Thorin started to growl, but I assumed it was just same old drunk who kind of lived in this alley, but he didn't bother anybody if you didn't bother him that is. But as the steps came closer, I noticed they sounded somehow harder, you know like those robots make while moving in the movies, after a while it started to creep me out.  
"I should stop reading creepy pastas before going to bed." I mumbled to myself. Thorin started to bark loudly.  
"What is it?" I asked, Thorin turned around and kept growling at the alley behind us. I watched behind my back, not realizing what the heck he was growling at.  
There was a pair of glowing red eyes, staring at us. I stared at them little while, until I stepped back, the trash can behind me fell and made a loud noise by falling to the ground. I watched whoever it was staring at me, it made this mechanic voice – like a machine but it was something else, it had to be, right? As it stepped one step ahead, I noticed it was holding a sword of some kind, part of me knew that it wasn't meant be an ornament of kind. Thorin stood in front of me, ready to protect me if it was necessary, but this time – I knew, he wouldn't have the chance besides getting himself hurt. I grabbed his leash and pulled him beside me, all I could think was to run away, and I did. Thorin didn't hesitate to follow me, but I knew he would rather stay and fight if I'd let him.

The thing followed us and it was fast, with one jump it was in front of us and raised its sword to strike. I stepped back for I didn't know what to do, I could run back to another direction but it would just follow me there. Thorin growled at it and placed himself between me and the thing, The sword struck, tearing the leash a part, I watched as my dog crouched and was ready to attack the foe that threated us.  
"Don't." I told him, since I was pretty sure this wouldn't end well for him. I breathed in and out, as she had told me to do if I would ever have to face a situation like this one.  
_Calm yourself, don't panic, if you do, you probably won't get out of here unharmed_. I looked at the thing, and then I looked around me, is there anything I can use to defend myself? Only thing there was, was that fallen trash can lying in the middle of the road.  
"Thorin, don't attack." I told my dog, which was very close to jumping and fighting the thing.  
"Distract it." I told him. "But don't get killed." He looked at me, like he would have understood what I said, as he approached the thing growling and barking at it, it stared at the animal for a while, probably thinking what a stupid dog it was.  
I went to the trash can and kicked it, the trash can rolled down to the thing and made it fell, as it didn't see what was coming until it was too late. Luckily Thorin dodged it and returned to my side, the thing still had the sword in its hand but it looked like it wasn't going to stand up from the ground, the trash can however had rolled somewhere as I couldn't see it anywhere.  
"Come on, let's go!" I told my dog as we ran by the sword wielding robot; I suddenly felt the pain on my left ankle as if something sharp would have struck on it. I couldn't help but growl, because it did hurt, not much but still did and I didn't expect that. I fell down against the ground, soon enough I felt the pain on my knee, I think it was bleeding but to my surprise the thing that chased me had lost interest for me and its head was turned back to the alley, there was someone else standing, I didn't see who it was, it was too dark for that, but instead, I heard his voice, it sort of rough voice:  
"What's wrong Karai?" He asked. "Can't control your toys anymore?"  
I blinked my eyes. Was he talking to me? _What a dumb question Marie, of course he was_ – or I think so since there was no one else to talk to expect that robot or whatever the thing was. I didn't like his tone, it sounded as he was expecting me to kick that things ass, and now he was disappointed that I didn't. I felt so stupid, but as the thing had lost its interest on me, I quickly rose up and ran.  
"Hey!" He shouted at my back. "I'm not done with you yet!" Then I heard the noise, that kind of noise anyone would make when they have just been bitten by a dog.  
_"Ala tulla, Thorin!"_ I yelled at my dog, he heard me and after a second he had left the stranger he had bitten and returned to my side. I didn't stop running until I was out of that alley. Until I was near enough the ballet studio. And sure no one was following me.

"Ok, Marie. Let's act normal." I told myself as I entered the building. "And as for you." I looked at my Karelian bear dog and it looked back, worried.  
"Stay here, don't go anywhere, be nice." I said. "It's alright. It won't come back." Or that is what I told myself.  
As I entered the dressing room, of course there was the official gossip club going on. I didn't like it here, but at least I got to dance.  
"I think she made those scars by herself, you know for attention." Said the girl who was at the center of other dancers, I think she was around 16 years old just like me, she had this annoying tone on her very girly voice. I had no doubt that she was talking to me; I haven't been nothing more than their subject of gossip about for the last few months. She, Tiffany King thought of herself as the ruler of this universe, she was the best dancer of our group and sure acted that way. Anyway, her friend messed up with the drugs, she was taken to detoxification, and she had no way back to this company, I came here to replace her, which pissed her highness, so much she decided to mock me, gossip about me and do whatever it took to make me quit here. _Sorry to disappoint, honey – I'm not going anywhere. _

If there was something I loved, it was ballet, dancing seemed to take everything away, even the fear I felt only a moments ago. They were all great dancers and after I failed to do my moves I had practiced and practiced, they all do that, but only a few would come here during the weekends, I did, because I had nothing better to do, I didn't fancy being alone in the house anyway.  
Sometimes when I danced I sort of lost it, I forgot everything around me, according to our teacher that is what a dancer is supposed to do, true art of ballet is not faking your feelings and dancing like a machine – as she puts it. Sometimes I felt like dancing was my only talent.  
"Hey watch it!" The queen of our group yelled at me, for I almost kicked her with my feet.  
"Well, excuse me." I mumbled sarcastically.  
"What?" She asked, trying to make me sound stupid. "Stupid Asian street kid!"  
"Ouch, that hurt." I said to her smiling in annoying way.  
"Ladies." Our teacher Madame Perrault called all of us; she had a heavy French accent in her voice. "Prepare to show your pirouettes."  
_No_. Not that. Last time we did that and after... Let's just say they gossiped how bad dancer I was and how they shouldn't have accepted me to join in and they did it for weeks.  
"Get it together." I told myself as the first one went and did her spinning around. "Don't think about how great others did it, just listen to the music and go with it. You can't fail as long as you do that, just forgot everything around you."  
I closed my eyes, and tried to focus, then she called my name. Ok, Marie – this is it. I walked out of the line of standing ballerinas, right to the middle of the room and got started. I managed to spin around few times, then when the last one came, I thought I was going to fail yet again, but I managed to save the situation with _grand pattement_, or almost one. It's this move where a dancer stands on her toes while her other foot is raised high up on the air, of course my left foot didn't reach that high as it should've been if this was done perfectly, but at least I didn't fail this time. I could breathe easily again. Madame stared at me for a second and nodded with approval. I returned to the line, but only to hear Tiffany stating what was on her mind.  
"Now she's just showing off. She's just trying to get attention to herself."  
_Oh shut up,_ I thought and rolled my eyes, and then I yawned for I was tired. And they started to talk some more, I didn't know Tiffany very well (and believe me I didn't want to) but now she would tell the others that I probably used drugs as well. Sometimes I wondered if that girl had no life for herself, since all she did was trying to make my life miserable – without even succeeding with it.  
"Mademoiselle Blomgren, I want to have a word with you." Madame told me after we did our _reverences_ like always before ending the lesson.  
They started to whispering, some dancer mates (or whatever I should call them) I had...  
Unlucky for me, her cellphone started ringing, she told me to wait here and I did.

I stood there for a while, yawned again and waited for some more.  
"Jeez. It's getting cold here." I said. "Could she finish that call already?" I got bored of waiting after some time I decided to dance some more, just to pass time. There was no music, but as I closed my eyes and imagined there to be as I would dance somewhere around the nature, in the place only I would know – as if such place would even exist. This was like that time in the past, when I was still a child; I would stay after classes and dance on my own, for I didn't want to return to that place. I stood on my toes and began jumping, landing on my toes perfectly, still my eyes closed I started to spin around slowly, I had no fear of failing this time – and even if I did fail, no one was here to see it. Then I jumped up, as If I could feel the gentle breeze of the wind blowing against my face, as I landed back to my feet, I felt another breeze, cold and piercing this time. I opened my eyes as I head someone talking.  
"Didn't know you had a soft side, Karai."  
It startled me and I almost stumbled on my feet, then I looked behind me, someone was standing right there. Someone who looked nothing like a human being. He looked like a giant, I mean human sized turtle, he had dark green skin and some bandana tied around his face like he was some kind of gangster or something. I didn't know what was the point of it, but I figured out I've danced way too much and with all that spinning around my head was getting confused, so he had to be a hallucination of some kind. I narrowed my eyes and blinked; he was still there staring at me with his emerald green eyes and didn't look too happy. I blinked my eyes once again, but he didn't go anywhere, so I slapped myself on the cheek, hoping that the light pain caused by it would take the mean looking hallucination turtle away, but it didn't. The human sized turtle was still there staring.  
"What the heck is that thing?" I asked aloud from myself, which wasn't very clever thing to ask. "Mad man in a reptile costume?"  
"Who are you calling mad?" The greenie asked and sounded quite pissed. I looked around me for a second and then looked back at the giant turtle.  
"You." I answered simply. For a moment it looked like he was going to say something very nasty, but the noise of shattering glass interrupted him. I noticed that both of the two windows in the back were broken. Someone stood in the corner of the room, that someone kept doing this mechanic noise, the same kind of noise I've heard back in the alley. It stood there for a second and I think he, it stared at us. I noticed Greenie, I mean the turtle or whatever he was drew out his weapons, two dagger like weapons and then grinning. They clashed, or the turtle did, it seemed like that someone didn't seem very interested at his attack. As I stepped one step forward, I was going for the door to be correct. The thing making that creepy sound, simply ignored the Greenie, which made him even angrier, he growled out pretty lowly but his attack got dodged. The thing reached me with only one jump, and it was already standing between me and the door.  
"You again." I sighed. It drew out its sword and pointed it at me. I stepped few steps back and jumped, I meant to land behind it and save myself with going out of the door. But instead I went and landed on the top of it, I mean his, whatever's head or my left foot did, I used the head only as a stopping point I would use only for help with jumping and landing right where I wanted to. I landed right in front of the door and then I rushed to open it to go out.  
"Oh no, you won't!" Greenie shouted, I didn't know if he meant me or the blade guy.

I ran to the corridor, bur soon I encountered Madame, who was just finishing her phone call.  
"Mademoiselle Blomgren." She asked. "I want to speak with you."  
"Not now. I'm in hurry!" I said quickly. "Can we speak another time? I'm late!"  
"Of course but..." She said.  
"And don't go into that room, there is some mad man dressed as a reptile there." I told her only to hear the voice growling of Greenie.  
"Who are you calling mad?!"  
"Guess!" I shouted back at him as I ran through the corridor, right to the girl's dressing room.  
Then I heard the strong barking noise. Black dog ran to me, from the other side of the corridor.  
"Thorin, am I glad to see you, buddy." I sighed. I stooped down and put my hands around his neck gently, and I pressed my face against the coarse fur of the Karelian bear dog. Thorin started squeaking, as if he'd understood the feeling I hadn't, I was quite scared of what had happened, and he understood it, even if he wasn't there to see it.  
"It's alright." I tried to convince myself. "It's alright, it was just... Something." I didn't know what was going on in there, and why that mechanic noises making thing attacked me. I sighed again and stood up; I opened the dressing room's door and went inside with my dog. Of course it was gossiping time, I didn't bother hearing what was it about. I wanted to get the hell away from here as fast I possibly could.  
"Ew." Said the high pitched voice as packed my ankle boots in the plastic back, where I usually kept my ballet shoes.  
"Take that thing out." Someone demanded as I put my jacket on and packed my clothes in my bag.  
"Oh, come on." I sighed. "He won't do anything to you, unless you're a bear or a rabbit." Thorin didn't even care about the others; he stared at the door ready to go whenever I told him so. I raised the school bag on my back and nodded at him.

As we went outside, it was getting cold, wind was getting worse. I shivered, I didn't mind the cold, but I didn't practically like this weather.  
Thorin looked at the building opposite to us and started to growl.  
"Let's just go..." I said but then I heard my cellphone ringing. I had to dig it up from my bag, luckily the ringer was used to waiting for me to answer the phone. Caller was Gargie.  
"Yeah?" I asked.  
"Hey, Frosty." He said. "I know this is late but Oliver kind of got sick so we have to cancel the plans."  
"Oh." I said slowly, it was like I didn't understand what my best friend had told me. "That's too bad. Should I call him?"  
"I don't think Oliver is up to speaking. You know daddy issues." Gargie told me.  
"I see." I answered. "Well.."  
Then I heard the mechanic noise behind my back. I screamed as I was almost hit by something but I managed to dodge it, nearly at least.  
"Maria?" Gargie called. "Is something wrong?"  
"Uh, G – I don't think this is good time." I said awkwardly. "I'll talk you tomorrow at school." I didn't wait for his reply; I stopped the call only to be hit by something sharp, I could feel my left cheek bleeding. Thorin barked, and before I got to chance to tell him not to, he was already jumped on the attacker, then he squeaked in pain and fell down on his side.  
"Thorin!" I yelled, as I looked at my most loyal friend trying to get to stand on his paws, for he was too stubborn to give up. Luckily the thing wasn't interested in the wounded animal, it was me it was after. It turned its head to look at me, I pressed my feet against the ground and narrowed my eyes and stared back. _This Time It's Personal._

I tried to kick the thing, which didn't help, I only managed to hurt myself, when I kicked it, I heard the glonk noise coming from the place I kicked, it was its stomach I think, I felt a slight pain coming from my foot, the same kind of pain you feel when you kick the wall made of bricks.  
"Ow." Was the only thing I could say to that, and another "ow" when I felt something sharp sinking in my leg. I managed to keep my foot pressed on the place I've kicked the thing, I pushed it back - I wasn't quite sure if it would work, but it did, I managed to push it away, at least a little. I put my whole weight into it and the thing fell down, but before it I managed to kick the sword wielding hand of its, so the blade fell on the ground. I was trembling, my whole body was.  
"Thorin?" I asked as I stepped back.  
Then I fell against the wall.  
The thing that was after me didn't strike this time, for its head was missing and in front of me – I don't believe it, was standing the human sized turtle.  
"That was pathetic, Karai." He said. Thorin jumped between us, I should've known he wouldn't be so easily beaten. He growled and showed his teeth to Greenie.  
"And here I thought you were a knight in shining armor, saving damsels in distress." I said sarcastically, I put my hand on my forehead and tried to sound as dramatic as I possibly could, of course I was only mocking the green dude.  
"And instead I see a foulmouthed amphibian with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. "  
I stood up and looked the thing without its head, I touched it's body carefully with my foot, it just lied there and didn't look like it was going to try and kill me again so I kneeled before it, and started to move its hands, they were all made of metal. That would explain the pain I felt as I kicked it.  
"Are you listening to me?!" Greenie shouted.  
"Is it a robot?" I asked to myself. "I wonder how it's been build..."  
The bark of Thorin woke me up from my wondering state. Greenie seemed like he had stepped back few steps as my dog looked like he was going to attack him anytime.  
"Don't play dumb with me, Karai." Greenie sighed. "You're the one who commands them."  
"What was that?" I asked as I stood up once more. "And stop calling me that, Greenie."  
"What are you going to do?" He asked and sounded amused. I was going to say something nasty to him, for I was getting tired of him accusing me for something and calling me someone named Kara, but then I noticed a pair of glowing red eyes behind him.  
"Thorin, let's get the hell out of here." I told the dog in my own language. I stepped back and so did he, we went running once again. And that was it.

I yawned; Thorin looked me with "Aren't we supposed to get home?"-look.  
"I know." I said to him as stroked his fur. "We definitely should." I raised my feet up from the water and put the shoes back on.  
"I'll be so ready to forget this god damned nightmare."

You know the feeling you get when you think everything is fine, then mad man in reptile costume jumps out of his hiding place – or he was more like thrown by something and landed less gracefully at my feet.  
"You again." I said with boredom in my voice.  
"Do me a favor Karai and.." He growled while rising back to his green feet.  
"My name is NOT freaking Kara!" I yelled at him. He was starting to anger me, for calling me with wrong name; yet again he couldn't know my real name but I didn't care.  
"Yeah right." He said like he thought I was lying. "Then what is it?" Before I had the chance to reply, same kind of robot Greenie had beheaded earlier walked or jumped out of nowhere. As it approached I didn't know what else to do so I kicked it away, or farer away at least.  
"It's Marie!" I shouted while doing this.  
"What?" Greenie shouted back as he was trying to behead the robot by jumping behind it and insidiously stabbing it back with his dagger or whatever it was, however the robot could see this coming and put his sword between them.  
I got this crazy idea and I charged and tried to push it near the water. I was quite sure the robot wouldn't be water proofed, but then again I hadn't seen real walking thing before in my life so I wouldn't know.  
"Hard one, aren't you?" I said, holding my aching ribs. The robot made the mechanic voice once as it stared at me with its glowing red eyes. Thorin tried to do something to help, it bit robot's angle, but of course dogs teeth against the hard metal didn't do much damage. The robot kicked Thorin off, and he was dropped in the river.  
I watched if he remained unharmed – or mostly anyway. Then I stared the water for a second.  
"What have you done with that?" Greenie, who was somehow beside me asked.  
"Nothing. I just took a short cut and it pissed him off." I told him.  
"You and your bossing around pissed it off?" He asked.  
"I haven't seen that thing in my life!" I yelled as I jumped in order to dodge the cutting sword at my face.  
"Quit that play already!" Greenie shouted as he kicked the robot.  
"You would know everything about plays!" I shouted and charged once again, this time it fell down, for it didn't have the time to gather enough balance after the strong kick Greenie had given it. Halfway down it grabbed me, I struggled, kicked, punched, and basically tried everything to get the thing off of me. It gave up eventually and let me go, I think it drowned.

"What is this? A wig?"  
And someone grabbed me from my hair, after fighting with the robot my bun was destroyed. I didn't wait to see who it was that grabbed me, I grabbed the hand of the grabber – sounds stupid, but that's what I did. I knew how to force the people to fall, you know for the self-defense, so that's what I did. He fell to the water and I stared at him, narrowing my eyes and raising my hands above my face, ready to slap or hit him if it came to it. Greenie looked slightly surprised. My dog was already beside me, barking at the turtle.  
"_Painutaan helvettiin täältä!"_ I told Thorin as I climbed up from the river, I took my things and ran, Thorin did too, he ran by my side the whole way home, I didn't look behind me, because this was crazy, and I think I was kind of scared, where had my safe world gone to?

"Mom, I'm home!" I yelled as I stepped in from the door. Of course, the russet Spitz was there to welcome me; I kneeled down and hugged her. I was trembling, for fear, for cold – does it even matter? She turned her head and started to lick my cheek.  
"I need to get changed." I said and stood up. Storm barked with agreement. I went upstairs in my room, I put on my favorite jumper and pants, then I heard all three dogs barking at my window.  
I watched outside, I could see nothing but darkness, and trees floating in it.  
"What's wrong?" I asked. I went and opened the window, then I saw something human-like moving in that tree.  
"You realize I can see you right?" I asked him. "What are you doing here?"  
"Just taking a walk." Greenie claimed.  
"Around our property?" I asked.  
"Geez, I thought you were going to scream and tell me to get lost before your parents come in."  
"Oh my gosh, it's a walking lizard!" I played along acting like I was scared of him.  
"A turtle, actually." Greenie said as he stepped – more likely jumped out of the shadow, on the top of the canopy.  
"You're wounded." I told him as I noticed a scratch on his right shoulder.  
"So are you." He pointed out my cheek and wrist, it seemed I had few scratches too.  
"Why are you here?" I repeated.  
He didn't reply, he just watched three dogs, one of them, white German Shepherd was still barking and Thorin continued growling. Mom, I mean Storm walked beside me and watched our guest with curiosity.  
"Roy, stop that." I sighed. "It's only a mad man in a reptile costume, I think we can manage if he tries to kill me."  
Turtle boy looked at me with amused smile.  
"I'll kick him in the face with my ballet shoes." I told him. I swear I could hear some-what silent laughing coming from his direction. I moved myself a side from the window, and he jumped in and looked at me, like he was waiting for someone else standing in my place. Or someone trying to stab him.  
"Who are you?" He asked.  
"I'm Marie Blomgren and I'm a ballet dancer." I simply said.  
"You sure of that?" He asked, trying to sound so tough, but if he was going to kill me, he would've drawn his weapons out already.  
"No, I suffer from a memory loss." I said sarcastically. "Come on."  
"Are you sure you don't have anyone lurking around here?" He asked.  
"It's just me and these guys." I told him.

"Sit there." I told him and pointed the old couch in our living room. Storm sat on the floor as I went to look for some disinfectant and bandages, but of course we didn't have any. There was some kind of stuff for cleaning wounds, but you don't need to know what it was.  
He was standing in front of our bookshelf, where we kept some family photos, mainly photos of me at different ages. He looked at the photo of me and my dad, taken from the hunting trip last summer.  
"That's me and my dad." I said.  
"Your dad?" He repeated.  
"He is hunting somewhere in Russia as we speak." I told him with a smile.  
"And your mom?"  
I looked at him distantly for a moment. "Never knew her."  
Then the awkward silent came.  
"You don't happen to have any siblings?" Greenie asked.  
"No, it's just me." I replied.  
"I see." Now it was his turn to sound distant. I opened the bottle of liquid meant for cleaning wounds and dropped few drops of it on the toilet paper.  
"What the heck is that stuff?" He asked loudly. "It smells disgusting."  
"For cleaning wounds." I said. "We don't have anything else at the moment."  
I knew it would sting a little bit, so I wasn't surprised to see him with that kind of face when you had to go through something unpleasant. I tied an old bandana, white one with black pattern around his shoulder.  
"What is this for?" He asked. "It's not like it's a deep wound, it's just a scratch."  
"Just in case." I replied. "Dad always does this even if it's just a scratch."

"I should get going." Greenie said after that. I nodded and walked him back upstairs, I wanted to make sure he left properly, for I didn't want to find a giant turtle (or mad man in a reptile costume) sleeping in my closet. "Night, Greenie." I told him as he was about to climb out from the open window.  
"It's Raph." He said without turning around. And then he was gone.

As for me, I went straight to bed, after I made sure that every window and door in this god damned house was locked. Although my night had been a madness, I fell into a deep sleep once I went to bed.

* * *

**A/N #2:** So here it was, I feel like I should explain what were those Finnish sayings Marie used, first one when Marie's on the alley she's pretty much using "Come on!" or "Come on already!" saying to Thorin. Another saying she uses in this chapter is translated "Let's get a hell away from here."  
I had help from my friend Arizu with the dialogue Marie has with Raph, when she calls him a knight in shining armor, Arizu has helped me a lot with this story and developing Marie as a character. At first I was going to pair Marie with Raph but then I changed it to Donnie because I felt (and still feel) Donnie deserves someone much better than April. However Marie was different character then, she was shy and timid not feisty at all not forgetting how un-interesting it was to write her. When I sent the first draft of this chapter to Arizu to read she commented Donnie's dialogue sounded Raph-like. Then I remembered my first idea and decided to add Raph to the story instead. I thought that maybe Donnie and Marie were too similiar and having to write about two similiar characters befriending could be bit too boring so I'm glad I have to work with different Marie and Raph.


	4. Chapter 2 - All American creepiness

**A/N:** My god I hated to write this chapter. This was just so hard to write, first part with Marie meeting April went smoothly. But the second part – it was just horrible. I know it is horrible reading. And no, April isn't going to be friends with Marie – I just don't see them as friends. Yes, I know many of you are going to hate me and OC Hannes for calling April names, I was going to smoothen it up but when I tried, I noticed that it would change the whole character of Hannes, he is meant to be mean and harsh, reason why it is explained later on, of course there's a small hint hidden in the text, you can go and try to guess what it is.

**Update:**I didn't write many changes but I fixed more typos I could ever believe were possible, there might still be some, but I tried to correct all I found.

* * *

Chapter two – All American Creepiness

The next day was perfectly normal, at first. It was actually so normal that I had to wonder was it just a dream, yesterday night I mean. For one, Oliver wasn't sick at all – like Gargie had told me. He just seemed like he hadn't slept at all during the night. When he was tired, he seemed even tinier than usual, his straw yellow hair was all tangled up and his eyes were fighting to stay open. One thing I noticed that wasn't normal was that small scratch on his right cheek.  
"Oliver?" I asked. "Morning?"  
He startled as he turned around to see me.  
"Oh! It was just you Marie, I was just..."  
"Something wrong?" I asked.  
"N-No!" He said with trembling voice. "Why would you think that?"  
"You just look like you just rose from a grave." I told him.  
"Oh. That." He said slowly as he wouldn't understood what I just said. "I didn't sleep well last night."  
"Had bad dreams?" I asked while I opened the door for him.  
"No, I just.. Had a lot on my mind." The same slow tone continued as he entered the school. We went to stairs, I was silent, part of me wanted to ask if he wanted to talk about it, but then maybe I shouldn't I mean, we didn't know anything about each other, not really. We had known each other for few months, but that's all, it's not like we were close friends or anything. I opened my mouth to say something anything, that would make him cheer up a bit, but another voice covered mine.  
"Marie Wilhelmina Blomgren, for god's sake!" Here comes my best friend. He hurried to catch up on us on the corridor and then he grabbed me from my shoulder.  
"Just tell me what the hell happened last night." He said as he was shaking me. "What was with the screaming? Did someone attack you? You're not hurt, are you?"  
Attack is a strong word, at least when I think of last night. Seriously, I can't tell him that I was chased by a freaking human sized turtle and a psycho robot which tried to kill me, even if Gargie is my best friend, I don't think he would believe me if I honestly told him about it. He would probably drag me to see his dad, who worked at the hospital and tell him that Marie had gone little crazy.  
"I'm not hurt. Some crazy dude just decided to break both of the windows in the ballet studio while I was still dancing." I told him. "And when you called me, Thorin tried to run away, so..."  
"Oh." He replied and gave me an intense stare with his mint green eyes, something told me, he didn't quite believe my story. But it was true, most of it anyway. Some crazy dude did crash one of the windows, but he wasn't quite human, but Gargie doesn't need to know that.

_Whatever_, I told myself. I am never going to tell anyone about last night, not even to that old hag, if she knew I was attacked I could kiss my peaceful life goodbye, for she would take a quick flight here and firstly scream my ears to deaf and then.. I don't want even think about it. She would drag herself here even if she knew my dad had left for another hunting trip and I was living by myself – it wasn't proper, she thought, she would come here with all her rules and orders to break my easy life apart, and that I didn't want. Besides I think it was just something that happened, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wasn't concerned for me, I was more concerned about Oliver and that scratch on his cheek, his cheek was just fine yesterday at school and now after meeting his father it just wasn't. Ok, maybe I'm over thinking this, but something is bothering him, I'll ask him about it later. As I said everything was perfectly normal, so was school, though I hate to admit it, because in every morning Nils – the loud mouth who sat next to me did what he knew best, that was annoying me by picking on my shoulder with his finger tip while calling me "mama." - that's just stupidest nickname ever.  
"Someone sure misses his mama." Gargie said, causing me to smile.  
But when it continues every ten seconds, it can be really annoying, and Nils he was bored, so there was no way he was going quit.  
"Seriously, Nils!" I yelled, annoyed at him. "Stop it already!" After that I added few Finnish curse words, which you don't need to know. There was text on the black board that said.  
_Art classes 10 am. To 12 am. In Roosevelt high school._  
"Really?" I asked. "Campus is this big and we don't have one art class in it?"  
But before our homeroom teacher could reply, my former neighbor stepped in to the class. His right eye was all purple.  
Most people would say: "I'm sorry for being late." but that wasn't the case with Hannes, he was this tough big guy who would always get into fights with other students, he was that kind guy you wouldn't want to mess around with, he was big - or should I say huge boy, muscular and all, he had light brown hair he never seemed to brush, and small light blue eyes but most of all he was really tall, tallest person in the class actually.

"What happened to him?" Oliver asked quietly. He was kind of afraid of the big dude, and who wouldn't be? Even I was, though we had been neighbors in Finland, I never knew him that well; I had been friends with his sister for almost five years though.  
"He probably got into a fight with somebody." Gargie said silently. He squeaked with high pitched voice as Hannes glared at him.  
"Good that you decided to join us, Johannes." Our homeroom teacher said peacefully. Hannes mumbled something as he went to his seat at the back of the class.  
"And do remember to come back here after the class." Our homeroom teacher reminded. "Do not fool around in the city - did you hear me, Nils?"  
Judging from his position, he was about to continue picking me again.  
"What?" He asked.  
"You go to your art classes in the nearest high school." Thorsten Ek explained patiently. "And please do not go fooling around to the city instead."  
"Why not?" Nils jokingly asked. "Let's do it, guys!" And by guys he meant his two sidekicks Emil and Casper. I sighed and wondered how he even got into this school since he clearly wasn't here to study seriously. I didn't know where the heck this Roosevelt High school even was and I wasn't keen on going there, I hated moving to place to place just because of few classes we had to take. Luckily Gargie decided to google it – so we wouldn't get lost, which was very easy to do in such a big city like this.

Me, Oliver and Gargie headed to the high school together, Hannes was some-what behind us the whole way, we didn't dare to ask him to join us, since he seemed to be angry and prefer his own company. The school itself was only few blocks away, so we made it there in time – unlike Nils and the company who I didn't see coming. High school seemed to be like normal place, just like our old middle school back in home, but of course this was at least five times bigger.  
"Who wants to go in first?" Oliver asked nervously.  
"I'll pass." Gargie said, then the both of them looked at me.  
"Don't look at me." I told them, and then I heard a frustrated growl behind me.  
_"Antakaa mun kaikki kestää."_ Hannes sighed as he passed us, going straight to the front door and into the school.  
"Come on." I said to them. "Let's go, we look stupid if we just stand here."  
"True." Gargie grabbed me by hand.  
"What are you doing?" I asked.  
"Just making sure any of us isn't going to get lost." He replied with a stupidest smile on his face. "And besides this is America."  
"Meaning?" Oliver asked.  
"Some crazy bitch could come and attack Marie from behind the corner any time." Gargie explained. I was sure he was only joking, but it would be fun to see how he was going to protect me against someone like that.  
"So you will be my protector, huh?" I asked. "Great. I've always wanted a geek knight in shining armor for my protection."  
Gargie laughed, he knew I was only kidding. Oliver looked at us, with this distant look in his eyes, like he was missing something.  
"Don't tell me, you need a hand too." I jokingly suggested and held out my free hand for him. For a second it looked like he was going to take the offer, but then he said.  
"Nah, I just follow you guys."

High School didn't look any different than other school I had seen, corridors were full of students getting to their next classes. There was no school uniforms, so we kind of stood out.  
"Oh, great, now we stand out like a handful of painful thumbs." Gargie sighed. "I knew these clown costumes wouldn't get us anything but trouble."  
"This is my sis's school." Oliver said quietly. "She gets lots of teasing because she's bit older than rest of the students."  
"Well you can't help it." I told him. "In Finland we start high school or whatever when we are 16 years old."  
"My sis flunked first year back in home too." Oliver sighed. We went up the stairs to find the classroom, as we were trying to do that in crowded stairs a girl with ginger hair pulled back with small ponytail walked pass us. She took one look at me and her blue eyes narrowed, she looked like she wanted to kill me or something. I got this sense of danger in my belly for that.  
"You." She whispered kind of loud tone so my friends could hear it. For some reason, Gargie started to laugh, he might of thought it sounded funny.  
"Hey April, do you know that girl?" Her friend who walked beside her asked.  
"Kind of." I heard the red head answering. "Just stay away from her, she's bad news."  
_Nice_, I thought, I never had seen you before, but the way you judge is making me dislike you already.  
"Why would she say such a thing?" Oliver asked in our mother tongue of course, since what is the idea of speaking English between friends who understood the same language.  
"Beats me." I told him. For one I had never seen this girl in my lifw and second she couldn't know me from anywhere, she must've been one of those people who just decide: I don't like this one for no reason at all, so I'm going to spread some rumors about you, - it's not like haven't seen that before.  
"It's not like this is any different from LP Middle school." Gargie said. "Just don't mind."  
"Don't worry, I won't." I told him.

Soon enough Oliver spotted his sister somewhere and went to talk to her – he wanted to tell her not to come and say something embarrassing, it must be nice to have a sister. Gargie left me standing in front of the toilet when he had to do what every man must when the time comes. So there was I, minding my own business and yawning, when someone crabbed me from my shoulder, however I managed to force the person to fall by grabbing his or hers hand and pulling her the way someone would do somersault, I kind of spun the thing above my shoulder so it landed right in front of me. It was the red haired girl I saw earlier, she looked like a cheerleader from one of those stupid American comedies they showed on TV, with perfect pretty face, blue eyes and freckles, not to mention those skin tight clothes and really short shorts.  
"I'm sorry." I said and let her go.  
"What are you doing here?" She asked attacking tone in her voice.  
"Going to art classes." I replied.  
"Yeah, right." She said while standing up. "You're here for me, aren't you?"  
"Why would I be here for you if I don't even know you?" I asked. "And believe me; I don't think I even want to. Tell me, is attacking people like a hobby to you?"  
"Not as much as for you!" She shouted, and then she literally tried hitting me with her right fist. I dodged it by squatting down.  
"Chill out will you!" I yelled back at her. "Do I look the one who is looking for a fight, here?"  
"Guess for yourself!" She replied and tried to punch me again, I jumped back, before I could think anything to do, I didn't want to hurt the girl, no matter how much I started to dislike her and besides we were in the **school** if I did anything, like hit her for example I would be in trouble with the principal.  
"Marie!" I heard Oliver calling me; I turned around and saw him standing there with a taller girl with short sandy colored hair and same cerulean blue as Oliver had. Then I got kicked on the ground. Luckily door of the toilet hit her straight to the face.  
"Why are you lying there for?" Gargie asked as he closed the door and realized he had hit someone with it. It was needless to say what had happened judging from the look on her face.  
"I told you some crazy bitch would attack you behind the corner!" He almost shouted. "I knew it! America is full of creepiness!"  
"Yeah, you got that right." I mumbled as Gargie held out his hand, I grabbed it and he pulled me back on feet again.  
"Are you alright?" He asked.  
"No injuries so I'm good." I told him, we went to Oliver and his sister who looked excited for meeting us.  
"Don't even think about it, you little wench!" I heard a loud voice shouting and then I saw Hannes pulling the red head's hand behind her back while taking some kind of iron fan from her free hand.  
"You were going to throw this at her, weren't you?" He exclaimed. "Just tell me, has Marie done something to you or are you just some kind of psycho?!"  
"Marie?" The girl asked sounding like someone had hit her on the head. "No, her name is..."  
"I know what her name is!" Hannes said angrily. "And if I ever see you trying to do such a thing again you'll be so sorry!"  
"Hey, you let go of April." Another boy passing by said. He had black hair and black bandana around his head that reminded me of that mad man in reptile costume.  
"This slut belongs to you, Jonesy?" Hannes asked bitterly. "I can see why."  
"Stop calling her names, Strom!" New guy said, and didn't sound too happy.  
"It's Ström, but I don't think a brain worm like you would ever know the difference." Okay, this is what happens when Hannes does the thing he is the best at, starting fights with anyone.  
"What did you call me?" Black haired guy raised his voice.  
"You heard me." Hannes said while looked down at him, since the black haired guy was half as big as Hannes was.  
"Hey if this is about last night I said I was sor..." He said.  
"You will be the next time you'll come to the ice rink." Hannes threatened, that was the other thing he was good at.

He let the girl go and continued.  
"Do you tend to attack people you haven't familiar with around here?" He asked suddenly with calm tone.  
"I know her!" The girl protested. "She is called Ka..."  
"Marie." Hannes called out. "Do you know this girl?"  
"No." I said truthfully. "I've never seen her in my life." I was quite surprised since Hannes had never called me by name, he always said something like: "Hey, you." while talking to me.  
"That's it then." He said. "Come on you three, art class is this way."  
We followed him of course, Gargie was holding my hand tightly, and I didn't mind him doing so, because speaking the truth, I was quite shaken never before I had been attacked inside the school building. But then again, this is America a country full of creepiness. These things must happen every day.

I don't consider myself very lucky person, but today I must've been out of luck, since guess who was in the same art classes as me. My newly found friend, the red head. She had a friend with her, gothic girl who had short black hair with purple streaks.  
As I passed by them, I heard the red head asking  
"Who are those guys?"  
"They look like they are students from some private school to me." Her friend told her. I sat on the same table as Oliver and Gargie, Hannes joined us too, maybe he thought it was stupid to sit by himself or surrounded by unknown people. Art classes weren't that bad, I liked drawing and stuff – at least the teacher wasn't as aim to be perfect as our former teacher and besides we get to listen classical music, mainly it was from _Sleeping beauty_ and _Giselle_, the ballets I was familiar with. I think we listened classical music because it helped us to focus or something, and because we were to draw something heartwarming or romantic. I have no idea what Gargie drew, I tried to take a look at his drawing but he wouldn't let me, it turned out Oliver couldn't draw at all and disliked the subject, and as usual, Hannes didn't say a word. That is until he went to get some water and brushes from the closet. That girl was talking with her friend and looked at me with the look that promised nothing good for me.  
"Why won't you shut up you damn cow?" He said. "Marie has lived in my neighborhood in Finland for five damn years, so don't you go and spread some rumors when you don't even know the person!"  
Ginger haired girl looked at Hannes for a while. Like someone who has gone mad or something. The black haired guy sitting on the same table as ginger head and the Goth stood up.  
"Don't speak to April like that!"  
"I speak the way I want to, to whoever I want to." Hannes said, he stood there a glass full of water on his hand, and for a moment I thought he was going pour it down on the guy but instead Hannes just rolled his eyes and returned to the table.  
"Here." He said and put the brushes he had gotten for us on the middle of the table. Then he sat down and didn't even look at us. It bothered me, so I took a piece of paper and wrote down: "_What was that about?_" I pushed the piece of paper to him. He looked at me before writing an answer to paper:  
"Nothing, just some random broad thinking you were a psycho serial killer."  
"Seriously?" I asked. Hannes grinned. Gargie looked curiously at the paper over my shoulder and burst into laugh.  
"I can so imagine that! Marie the serial killer, you know like that Jane from the creepy story."  
"Have you been watching slasher films again?" I rolled my eyes. Sometimes the imagination of my friend scared me.

We decided not to eat in the high school; we bought some burgers from the place called Rawst and went back to the campus again for the afternoon classes. Nils and his small gang returned there few hours later. I admit the rest of the day was kind of boring but it wasn't that bad. I yawned as I went to the toilet. As the classes were still going on, there were no other students on the corridors, when I got out from the toilet I saw two adult men standing on the empty corridor.  
I was standing at the corner of the corridor, so they couldn't see me, but I could hear them clearly. I didn't do this kind of thing often, but I was too bored to go back to the class, so I thought I would stand here and look like I'm minding my own business.  
"Kraang has done the request requested by Kraang, in order to find that which needs to be found." It was a voice that belonged to a man, kind of a mechanical one, like a robot in those science fiction movies. It sounded bit funny to me.  
"The one that needs to be found is located on the third floor." Another exactly similar voice continued. "Kraang shall go to this floor and retrieve that what needs to be found."  
It didn't sound too interesting, it sounded like someone needed to get a thing from the third floor and be on his way. I turned around to go back to class, but I was startled by someone standing right behind me. It was a man, a slender man wearing a suit.  
"Hello, Slendy." I said.  
"Kraang has worked on his diet." The man said with the same mechanic voice as the last one I heard talking. I tried to pass him but as I tried to go my own way, he walked in front of me. I tried to pass him, and he did the same thing as before, like he didn't want to let me passing him.  
"Excuse me." I said slightly annoyed. "Just trying to get to class, here."  
Before I even knew what happened, that man grabbed my arm and I found myself lying on the shoulder of the man, who started to creep me out.  
"Hey, let me go you moron!" I shouted at him. "_Nyt perkele irti!"_  
But he didn't, and I was quite sure throwing Finnish curse words at him didn't help. He walked to those other men standing in the corridor. They were all identical to each other. I kicked the air with my feet, as that would do me any good, but I got to try.  
"Kraang, Kraang has noticed that the sleeping gas kraang has put in that which is known as the air-condition system has no effect on this which is known as the girl."  
I felt stupid, he didn't have any hold of me, and here I was kicking into the thin air. I rolled my eyes and then I rolled myself down to the floor as he didn't pay any attention of what I was doing, I quickly stood up and started running. Luckily other men were too busy wondering what had happened, so I got away. I hurried up the stairs, back to the classroom; I think I've had enough excitement for one day. The door was left open. Ok, I guess our teacher went to get a cup of coffee or something.  
"Gargie, you won't believe what hap.." I said when I stepped back to the classroom, until I saw my classmates, they were all sleeping – Nils was snoring very loudly which didn't surprise me at all.  
"Uh, guys?" I said. I tried wake up Gargie. I shook him, but it didn't help.  
"Gargie, wake up already! God dammit! Valdemar, get up at this instant or else..!" I even tried to imitate his mom, which usually did the trick but he just continued his adventures in the dreamland. Someone did listen to music at the back of the classroom. Oliver didn't seem like sleeping, he was writing on the computer and seemed very concentrated of what he was doing.  
"Oliver?" I asked. He didn't turn around. I guess he didn't hear me at all. So I went to him and touched his shoulder.  
"Hey, Oliver!"  
He startled and looked back at me; he took the earphones off of his ears and said: "Marie! I didn't see you there."  
"I can see that." I replied.  
"Why is everybody all burn out?" He asked after noticing what I already had.  
"That's what I wanted to know." I told him. "You didn't notice a thing?"  
"No, I was writing my notes." Oliver said.

"Kraang, Kraang has found the one needed by the Kraang." Same mechanical voice said behind us. I looked at the door, there they were again, those same slendermen with suits, all three of them in fact. Oliver squeaked in horror. He looked scared or horrified would be the right word to describe it.  
"Th...They have come..." He mumbled.  
"What?" I asked. "You know those guys?"  
"N-No." He said with shivering voice. "But my dad..."  
"Kraang will take the one needed by the Kraang." One of the slendermen said and stepped closer. "One known as the girl will need to step aside."  
"Not a chance." I said and stepped between the creepy man and Oliver.  
"Kraang, Kraang must eliminate the one known as a girl that is standing between Kraang and the one needed by the Kraang."  
That didn't sound too cool, but I thought I could figure something out... Until I saw those big guns of theirs.  
"Oh crap." I cursed. Oliver was standing behind me, right between me and the window.  
"Oliver, open the window and climb out." I told him.  
"But..." He mumbled.  
"It's the only way out!" I yelled at him. He squeaked but did what I told him to. He climbed out the window, I was going to do the same, I stepped back slowly few steps and simply climbed out the window.

"What now?" Oliver asked.  
"Run!" I yelled at him. We were standing on the roof, we didn't really have anything to go to and that's what Oliver pointed out next.  
"Where?" Oliver asked when I climbed on the roof from the window. "There's nowhere to go."  
"We need to get down." I said, it was the only thing I could think of. "Then we need to run."  
"Do we jump? We are on third floor and I don't think it's wise." Oliver said.  
"No, we climb; there should be fire escape somewhere." I told him, but then again I wasn't quite sure about it.  
"B-But what if I fall?" Oliver asked.  
I sighed. "Oliver, we don't have a choice here..." Then something flew past my ear, Oliver shrink and finally he decided to go and do what I told him to, I followed him, after I noticed those slendermen climbing one after one to the roof. Great, now they were after us. Then Oliver stopped.  
"Go on!" I yelled at him as I tried to dodge one of lasers they shot from their guns.  
"I can't!" He yelled. "There's nowhere to go to!"  
"Jump!" I yelled. But he didn't, he just waited there. _Just go already!_ I fell down to my knees, as I noticed one more lasers coming at my direction, and another one coming from another direction, I didn't have time to start dodging those, if I dodge another one, I would get hit by another one, so I threw myself – or more likely stumbled with my feet and fell – but at least I was still at one piece.  
"Marie!" I heard Oliver calling me.  
"Stay there!" I replied. My knees were aching, I guess they hadn't fully recovered from yesterday, but it wasn't going to kill me. I got back to my feet and ran to Oliver. He was shivering as he looked down to the fire escape.  
"Oliver, it's not that long." I told him. "We can't stay here, or do you want to get shot by those creeps?"  
"But I'm..." He mumbled.  
I sighed. "Okay. You'll thank me later." I mean, what I was supposed to do? Wait and let those creeps kidnap him or something just because he was scared, I was too, though it didn't seem like it. I pushed him over.  
"What are you..!" He screamed. Then I jumped over.

"Come on, you need to get up." I told him. "Are you hurt?"  
"I-I don't think so." He said.  
"Here." I stretched my hand to him. He grabbed my hand and I pulled him up. Oliver was about say something, but I didn't get a chance to hear what it was, since there was another laser coming right at us.  
"Kraang, Kraang is supposed to take the one needed by the Kraang which is not killing the one known as the one needed by the Kraang." We heard the mechanical male voice saying.  
"Look out!" Oliver yelled and in next minute I found myself lying on Oliver.  
"Well, this is awkward." I told him. "But thanks anyway." Oliver had probably just saved my life and all.

Oliver must've been in pain, because when he saved me, pulled me out of the way, we kind of fell down the metallic stairs.  
"Ow." He said as a reply.  
"Sorry, I should've been more careful." I said when I stood up.  
"That's alright." Oliver said, but it sounded painful. "Where to now?"  
"We need to hide." I told him as I watched him getting back on his feet again.  
"But where?" Oliver asked as we started to run. "I don't suppose we can go to my place, my aunt is at home and if those creeps follow us, she might get hurt."  
"My house is too far." I told him. "But there's one place we can go and figure something out."  
"Where's that?" Oliver asked.  
"Follow!"  
Soon enough I noticed that Oliver couldn't keep up with me. We didn't see those creeps anywhere but we both knew they were somewhere looking for us or for Oliver since they mentioned 'him' – me they just wanted dead.  
"Hey... Ma-Marie, you... have a good condition." Oliver panted.  
"It's the dancing. Not so light as you would think." I smirked. "Don't worry, we're almost there."  
I was leading him to the place I had been just last night to gather my strenght. I hadn't shown the place to anyone before, but this was only place I could think of at the moment. For one there were no people and it was a good hiding place. I liked it there, it was peaceful and sheltered, when you want to have a little bit of privacy or to run away from all the noise and the packs of rushing people, this may not sound like much, but to a girl who grew up in a small one-horse-town in the countryside this was much to deal with. I sat down near the water edge. And Oliver did the same.  
"Afraid of the heights?" I asked.  
"Kind of." Oliver mumbled. "I'm afraid of falling. You on the other hand don't seem to be afraid of anything."  
"Why you say that?" I asked surprised.  
"You didn't seem to be afraid of those guys, so I thought..." He explained awkwardly. "Are you afraid of anything?"  
"Yeah, I am." I said quietly. "I'm not brave, at all. Oliver, only thing I'm good at is running away."  
"Why do you say that, Marie?" Oliver asked. "If it weren't for you those creeps would have taken me!"  
"Hey, about that, you mentioned your dad." I said. "Did you know those men were going to come for you?"  
"No!" He almost shouted. "My dad knew something was going to come for me and he was happy!"  
I noticed Oliver rubbing that scratch of his on his cheek.  
"Your dad did that?" I asked.  
Oliver watched me terrified. "How did you..?"  
"Just a lucky guess." I said and put my hand around him. "I just know where you came from, pal."  
"Uh... Thanks." He said and sounded awkward. "I'll be fine."  
"You still got your sister." I reminded him.  
"Yeah, you should've seen my sister, she got so mad at him I thought she was going to kick the man out of the door." Oliver laughed.  
"Yeah, that's a good part of having an older siblings." I sighed. "But I wouldn't know."  
"You're the only child?" Oliver asked.  
"Yeah." I nodded. "Dad considers Storm, Thorin and Roy as his children too. They're my dogs."  
"I see." Oliver said.

Then there was a large BOOM sound behind our backs.  
"That doesn't sound good." I said. And I was right.  
"Kraang has finally managed to find the one that is needed by the Kraang." Mechanic male voice said.  
"They found us!" Oliver screamed and not so manly.  
"So it seems." I said as I got back on my feet.  
"Marie?" Oliver asked. "What are you..?"  
"I have no idea." I said to myself. But _something_ must be done, otherwise I would end up dead and Oliver – who knows what those guys were planning to do with him.  
"Kraang must take out the one that is in the way of the one needed by the Kraang." Mechanic voice said.  
Well, give me your best shot. Maybe I shouldn't think this way, even a blind man could see I was in deep trouble, and there were three of them and only one of me as for Oliver, he wouldn't be any help for me. Guys with guns, if I make it out of here alive I'll always be nice to Kiriko even if she's going to be bitch about many things I do, and I know she will be. _Okay, Marie, calm yourself. Breath._ I heard the water purling. Time to move on.

They shot at me, I managed to dodge it – I literally crawled in the dirt by doing that. I tried kicking the one that was nearest to me, but it did nothing – or it did, it hurt my leg. It was like kicking the brick wall with all you got and it hurt like hell. Then I got grabbed by my foot and thrown out of the way, and then I hit my head – I think it was the brick wall built there for some reason, I've always liked it, but now with hitting my head on it, I started dislike it. I tried to get up, but I couldn't I felt all dizzy. Everything around me was spinning and it wouldn't stop even though I wanted to. Of course those guys weren't interested of me anymore, it was Oliver they wanted. He screamed in horror.  
Then the storm came, I mean the wind went like crazy, it must've been like a tornado, because when I woke up I was lying in the river, I didn't know when I passed out but at least the cold water helped me a bit, to recover as it always did. All those men were lying on the ground and Oliver was shivering. Of course they were getting back to their feet. I needed something, a weapon to defeat those guys with, because if it continued like this, they wouldn't stop coming after Oliver. I wasn't kicked by a normal foot, it felt like a metal or something.  
"Wait a moment." I mumbled. I started looking at river. That robot from yesterday had a sword, if someone hadn't been digging around, it should still be there.

"N-No!" Oliver yelled. "If you come any closer I do that again! And don't touch Marie o-or else!"  
"Kraang will now complete the mission which is taking the one needed by the Kraang to the place which is-"  
Then his head was dropped off.  
"Wow, this IS sharp." I said. Then I stroke the blade on the other one's back. It wasn't a human I hit; right now I didn't even care.  
"Marie!" Oliver yelled. "You're alright!"  
"Yeah!" I said. I tried to pull the sword out of whatever this thing was, but it was stuck. "Help!"  
Just because the other man was no trying to kill me, I tried kicking at the same time I tried to pull the weapon out of its companion. Then the wind came again, it wasn't as tornado-like as earlier but it did the job, the last man standing kind of broke its head on the brick wall. Then something pink and slimy jumped on my face.  
"Eww!"  
"What the heck is that?" Oliver screamed. Then the thing jumped off of my face, so I could see it. It looked like a brain, with tentacles. Three of them actually, one for every man or whatever they were. Brain things looked kind of pissed but they didn't care about us, they were too busy to run away. I was on the ground again thanks to whatever gust of wind it had been.  
"Marie I-I'm so sorry!" Oliver said as he rushed to me. "Are you alright?"  
"Yeah, if we forgot the part where a couple of brains danced on my face." I sighed. "What the heck was that?"  
"I don't know." Oliver said. "Are those... robots?"  
"Wouldn't be first ones I've seen around here." I mumbled.  
"What?" Oliver asked. "Do you know what those things were?"  
"No." I said.  
"And how did you know about that sword being in the river?" Oliver asked doubtfully.  
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." I sighed. "Can we please talk somewhere else?"

"Kids, food is on then minutes!"  
"Yeah, we're coming!" Oliver replied to his aunt's call. I sat on the floor of Oliver's bedroom.  
"Marie, you have a secret, right?" He asked. I didn't tell him. Not about the madness of last night. Oliver was smart in his own way; he didn't try to ask what was going on with the robots or anything at all. He was restless but he was like me at this way, he wanted to think other things than creepy slendermen hunting him.  
"About what I did... My dad..." He tried explain.  
"It was the reason." I ended his sentence. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, like you said I have my secrets too, so I know how to keep them."  
However those robots and whatever those things inside of them were bothered me. I didn't give much thought of that robot chasing me yesterday, I mean it probably just chased me because I did something to bother it, but these guys were ready to kill me for standing between them and Oliver. It was clear that Oliver himself wasn't any ordinary boy, if he was the one who started those tornados, that could be the reason for why he was wanted by those creeps, and his father knew about it and if I heard correctly he was happy to give his son into their hands, but I wasn't. Whatever this is, Oliver doesn't deserve it.  
"I hope this won't happen again." He said quietly.  
"Me too." I replied. But something told me this wouldn't be the last time we would see those creeps.

**A/N Part 2:** **A/N 2:** Now for the Finnish phrases used in this chapter. Hannes uses the phrase _"Anna mun kaikki kestää."_ which would be directly translated as _"Let me suffer it all."_ but I think more precise way to translate it would be "Come on." as that's what it also could mean. And as for the phrase Marie is using, she's pretty much telling the Kraang put his hands off of her but rather than using a word "now" she replaces it with Finnish most common curse word that I think is a word meaning "devil" I also read it could mean a god of thunder in Finnish mythology. Shame on me for teaching you ugly Finnish words..


	5. Chapter 3 No Damsels in Distress for you

**A/N:** So the third chapter, nothing much is going on here, it's just Raph and Marie meeting again, not much is going on between them in this chapter – you'll have to wait till the next chapter. I still have problems of writing a fighting-scenes as you can see. I hope you like this chapter, I'll try to make next one better!

**Update:** Corrected some typos.

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Chapter 3 – No Damsels in Distress for You

It had been a week since anything crazy had been going on. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened, I continued my life as usual, school, walks with my dogs and ballet, training mostly. Dad was still hunting somewhere in Russia; I hanged out with my friends, came here – ballet studio every day and did what I knew best. I enjoyed dancing, unless we had to dance in pairs, usually I was kind of left alone person. Unless he was there.

"So I heard a rumor that we are going to do _Swan Lake_ this year." He said while dancing.  
"Swan lake?" I repeated. "Wow, I've always wanted to see it."  
"Aren't you going to try it out?" He made me feel dizzy, every time I felt his hands on my waist, or when he held my hand – which he had to do because this was training of the dance of love, I always called it that and it made me nervous.  
"Try what out?" I asked. I felt much more better – not sweaty way when he let go of my hand and we went our separate ways doing our own steps, but it lasted only a moment, I had to do a little jump to return to his arms and stand on my toes and bow down a bit, it was followed by very spinning, and some faster spinning and bowing again.  
"Try and get a role from the ballet." He said behind me as we danced together. "I bet you would make a lovely little swan."  
I took his hand and let him be the leader as we did our steps, I smiled at him. "And you would make one awesome prince Siegfried then?"  
"Nah, I thought of trying out Von Rothbart." He said.  
"The bad guy?" I asked. "Well you'll probably get the role."  
Then I did the spinning, _pirouette_ – but I prefer the other term, and stood on my toes again.  
"I hope that was a compliment." He laughed.  
"Oh, it was." I told him as we continued dancing. "You are a great dancer."  
I felt embarrassing, so I was more than a happy to let go of his hand and go to do the steps alone. I bet my cheeks were burning red by now.  
"You too." He said while dancing next to me. "Madame has her eyes on you."  
"And what does that mean?" I asked.  
"She expects you to go and have a role." And then he lifted me into his arms. I felt like my heart was going to explode for the speed it was beating. Luckily for me it was the end of our lesson.

"So... Uh, it was nice dancing with you." I mumbled.  
"Same to you." He smiled. When he left I couldn't do anything but to sigh for my own stupidity. Seriously couldn't I figure out something better to say? He must think I'm such a fool. I went back to the dressing room only to hear some giggles and whispering.  
"Oh my god, did you see how she looked at him?"  
"She so doesn't know!"  
I ignored them. It was clear they didn't like me and I can assure that the feeling was equal. I got dressed up, just before putting my shoes on, my cellphone started ringing. Oliver was calling me; he had done that much lately.  
"What's up?" I asked while answering the call.  
"No robots trying to kidnap me, just normal stuff, or does my sister's friends count? They are kind of creepy."  
"The land of girly giggles, huh?" I asked.  
"Yeah. I'm not even sure what is the giggling all about." Oliver explained. "I kind of went to hide in my room because I didn't know if I was their source of fun or did I just say something stupid."  
"But everything is alright?" I asked.  
"Sure. I just wanted to call you." Oliver said.  
"Didn't we agree to do that?" I asked.  
"Yeah but I don't want to be a bother." Oliver mumbled.  
"You're not, these guys are." I told him. "They keep whispering and giggling without daring to say what is so goddamn funny!"  
"Is that a ballet thing?" He asked.  
"Something like that." I sighed. "Have a nice weekend."  
"You too." Oliver said.

After few months no one didn't complain about me leaving my dogs waiting on the hall, of course Tiffany the queen of all ballerinas did, but I mainly ignored her, since I knew she would run away screaming after she even looked at Thorin, Thorin was kind of big and could be scary at times, but he wouldn't bite anyone – unless he was bothered or more likely annoyed by someone he didn't know. Mom – I mean Storm was taking a nap, she rested her head on her front paws, her eyes closed, but she wasn't sleeping. She pricks her ears up and once I was close enough she opened her dark brown eyes. I could almost imagine her smiling.  
"Sorry it took so long, Mom." I sighed as I took her leash on my hand. "Let's go home."

Just as I walked out the building, my cellphone started ringing again.  
"What gives?" I sighed upon answering. "Yes, Oliver I am being careful, and I'll give you a call as soon as the aliens attack me."  
"You've been watching way too many movies, girl." Female voices answers. "And who is this Oliver? Do you have some guy you've been too busy fooling around with?"  
I can imagine myself having really embarrassing face right now, because the caller was no Oliver, it was Kiriko who I like to call old hag or just hag sometimes.  
"Oh, Kiriko I didn't see you calling." I replied awkwardly.  
"So I've noticed." Kiriko said and didn't sound too happy. "You haven't returned any of my calls. I hope all that living in the big apple hasn't gone into your head."  
"No, I mean I have been busy." I told her. "You know with the school and stuff."  
"And this new guy of yours?" Kiriko asked with strongly hinting tone.  
"No. Oliver is just a friend. Classmate actually." I told her. "Anyway new ballet classes are little bit challenging. I've done lots of training in there; my fellow dancers aren't exactly kind to me."  
"Well, I know how that can be." Kiriko said. "When I was dancing in that French company, people could be pretty prejudiced at times so I wasn't exactly popular."  
"I don't get, that's international company, right?" I said. "There's Spanish and Russian and who knows how many other countries involved with dancing, and yet Asians are their favorite people to tease? Why can't people just get along?"  
"Because that what people do best." Kiriko said. "It's stupid but that's how it is."  
We have had this conversation many times before. I sighed, because that is what I always did when she said those exactly same words.  
Mom growled. She stopped walking, she looked back, I did too, just in case.  
"I assume you have been training other things than ballet then?" Kiriko asked.  
"Uh..."

Then I noticed someone standing little away of ahead of me. He was kind of tall and muscular Asian guy with really awesome whiskers.  
"Uh, Kiriko let me call you back." I said to the cellphone. "Bye."  
"I saw this one on TV." I said. "Nice whiskers by the way." Lucky me, I've always come across those crime dramas or whatever they are called, where there is this helpless girl and two bad guys ready to rob the poor blonde girl.  
"You have no idea what your situation is, do you?" Said the one behind my back, he looked younger than the dude with awesome whiskers.  
"Let me guess, I'm the helpless damsel in distress?" I asked sarcastically. Both of them grinned.  
"Just give us the money and we'll be on our way, sweetheart." Whisker man said.  
"Sorry, no can do." I said to them. Actually they were pitiful excuses for whatever bad asses they tried to be, for one, the younger was maybe couple of years older than me.  
"You really want to get hurt, huh?" The younger one said trying to sound as tough as he could but ended up sounding ridiculous.  
"No, but you do." I said, I detached the leash attached to Storm's collar and letting her loose. "What do you say mom, ready to sharpen your teeth?"  
She barked for reply, I think that meant: yes. She growled at the bigger guy with awesome whiskers, then she took one step closer and revealed her teeth.  
Younger one tried to grab me from behind but I managed to hit him farther away from me with my backpack. Meanwhile when the guy struggled with his balance, I opened the backpack and grabbed the first item I could reach. It was my history book, thick and heavy thing I'm forced to drag to school every Friday. Judging by the noises Mom had probably bitten the whiskers guy.  
"You really think that's gonna do anything against this?" Younger guy said as he pulled a pocket knife from his pocket.  
"We just have to see." I said and smirked.

"You're really asking for this, bitch." He said as he took one step closer.  
"Hey, no one did tell you to go and rob people." I said indignantly.  
"No, but it's fun!" The robster said as he started to flail with his pocket knife, one came too close to my face, since I wasn't keen on having another scar on me, I decided to try one thing. I jumped over him, he wasn't that tall, and I managed to do it quite well. I kicked his face by doing the jump. Robster howled – or at least that's how it sounded to me, I hit the guy with the book as hard as I possibly could, because I felt like when he was done howling he was going to slash my throat wide open. Luckily hit on the head made him go all dizzy, so I was safe for a moment. I needed to get a hell away from here.  
"Well, what kind of party is this?" I heard a boy's voice say somewhere above me. "Two older guys chasing after one girl?"  
"The world is full of perverts." Yet another guy's voice said.  
"Tell me about it." I mumbled while trying to get a hell away from here, but I couldn't see Mom anywhere.  
"Let's just kick these guys anyway." First spoken voice said and then someone – a guy with a hockey stick on his hand and freaky looking mask on his face jumped down. Then there was another one, green, human-sized something. It was quite dark so I didn't see well. So I just hit what-ever was in front of me.  
"Hey!" Someone shouted annoyed, and I recognized the voice. "I'm saving you here!"  
"Not you again!" I yelled at him. Sure, week had passed without anything but normal and there comes the mad man in a reptile costume.  
His friend focused mostly beating the younger guy with his hockey stick.  
"Where did the other one go?" Greenie asked. "What did you do this time?"  
"Nothing, they followed me and decided to rob me." I said as I walked farther away from him. I wanted to find my dog and get lost from here.  
"Mom!" I called out, hoping she would answer me. I didn't see a thing. Where was the bigger man? Only a fool would go and yell like this when there's a dangerous man nearby, but I didn't care. I just wanted to find my dog and be on my way.  
"You have your mom with you?" A masked teenager asked.  
"No it's-" I started but my words turned into a scream, someone grabbed me from behind, someone that smelled awful, I felt like I was choking, or more like someone was choking me, and then pressed something cold and sharp against my throat. He dragged me out of the shadow, so everyone in the alley could see that I was the damsel in distress.  
"No one moves or I'll slash her throat wide open." He threatened. I noticed the younger one was gone – he probably got scared and ran away.  
"What are you, playing dress-up?" He asked.  
"Not quite." Greenie said. "Just be a man and let the girl go." He stepped closer wielding two daggers or something like them.  
"Easy there, boy." Big robster said pressing the knife or whatever it was against my skin even harder, making it sure I felt it. "You don't want me to hurt this pretty girl, right?"  
I noticed something else moving in the shadows, something dog a-like, I smiled.  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I said.  
"And what are you going to do about it?" He smirked.  
"Oh, I'm not." I said. "But she is!" Then I heard, I think everyone heard growling behind the big robster. Then he yelled in pain and no wonder why, there was maybe not the biggest dog but right now meanest one biting his ass. No one should mess with a she-dog. He loosened his grip, and removed the knife wielding hand from my throat. I bit his arm, it was only thing I could think of, and then he threw me to the ground and started to flail his knife trying to reach my dog, but she was faster.  
I grabbed my book I had dropped earlier and hit him with it, then I kicked him on the stomach, I hit my knee on his skin as hard as I possibly could, I knew it wouldn't do much damage to man like this, but at least it made him to drop his weapon to the ground, it or the fact that Mom was biting him with all her might.  
"I'm not freaking damsel in distress." I growled at him.

It didn't take long for the big robster to disappear in the same way and his partner did. He got scared of the hockey stick wielding teenager and mad man in reptile costume, they chased him away, I didn't go and see what happened, instead I kneeled down and looked at my dog, she looked perfectly normal, sure her fox colored fur was messy and dirty, but she wasn't injured. She looked at me; happily, her bright brown eyes glistened as they always did, if I had a nightmare, or if I had had a bad day at school or something, I think it was her way of saying: _"It's alright."_  
I hugged her with relief. "For a moment I thought..."  
"That was just pitiful." I heard someone say. "He ran like a coward."  
"Well those weren't the purple dragons, that's for sure." I heard Greenie say.  
"Maybe they were just some random thieves." His friend suggested. "New York is full of them."

"We better get back home before something else happens." I said when I attached the leash back to Mom's collar. Then I stuffed the history book back to my backpack.  
"To think I used a history book as a weapon." I sighed. Mom squeaked as she looked up to me with her bright brown eyes.  
"Geez, I know, everything can be used as a weapon." I sighed. "I swear, if you knew how to speak human language, you would sound just like Kiriko."  
Then we heard the garbage can falling, Mom started growling and barking because of it. There he was, the younger robster all shaken up.  
"Look, it's a chicken." I said. "Mom, are you hungry?"  
Mom barked angrily and stepped in front of me – as she always did when she thought I was in need of protection.  
"N-No, please! I only followed orders!" He screamed.  
"From that bigger guy?" I assumed. "He's gone."  
"Those creeps chased him away!" He screamed back.  
"Creeps?" I heard Greenie saying behind my back. "Who are you calling a creep?" He started walking, pissed off; he looked like he wanted to tear this guy apart. Chicken guy looked at me in hopes of protection.  
"Go home." I told him while rolling my eyes.  
"What?" Greenie asked angrily. "You're just gonna let him go?"  
"He is no danger when his partner is god knows where." I sighed as I watched the robster chicken running away and squeaking after he took one look at Greenie's friend.  
I was going to head back home too, but his partner stopped me by asking:  
"Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" Before I had the change of answering he continued. "You're that girl from the art classes... Uh... Mary?"  
"Marie." I fixed him. "I don't remember you though."  
"Your crazy friend threatened me." He said as he took his mask away. Now he looked much more familiar.  
"Oh, right." I remembered, he was that Jones guy Hannes hated for some reason that I didn't know of, nor did I want to, I guess that was just some guy thing.  
"Anyway I know how this looks, but this fellow right here..." He tried to explain the appearance of his friend to me, but I decided to make it easy on him.  
"He is just a mad man in reptile costume." I smiled.  
"Don't you start that again." Greenie mumbled slightly annoyed.  
"Aww, why not?" I teased him.  
Jones looked at Greenie surprised. "You know this girl?"  
"Let's just say we don't have the best first impression of each other." Greenie explained to his friend.  
"You got that right." I sighed as I walked pass them. "Anyway, thanks for kicking that guys ass for me."

I was relieved as I got back home, sure it was quiet and all, and I've got used to it. Of course Roy and Thorin made some noise when they came to say hi as I walked inside, they had this thing going on: every time they were greeting me as I got home they had to start fighting, of course Mom would chase them away.  
I decided to take it easy for rest of the night; I opened TV, got comfortable position on the cough and watched some crime scene drama while eating some tacos. Not too long lasted until my cellphone started ringing again.  
"Kiriko?" I asked for I knew she was the one calling me.  
"What was that about?" He demanded to know.  
"Nothing, it's stupid actually." I sighed. "Someone brought down a garbage can and I thought it was something else."  
"Like what?" She asked.  
"You know, that someone was following me or something." I regretted saying that, because Kiriko had an ability not only to annoy but also to know when someone was lying to her or making stories, especially when that someone was me.  
"And there wasn't anyone?" She asked with a sharp tone in her voice.  
"Nope." I told her. "It's just difficult after living in such a small town."  
"If you could call that a town." Kiriko said. "I know. Life is different in New York; people can be rude and indifferent. You may also watch out what kind of people you hang out with, not everything is how it looks at first."  
"I know." I sighed. Kiriko was doing her mother-speech to me again.  
"You just remember to be careful and continue training." She said.  
"I will." I answered.  
"And I assume you know that you should call me if anything weird or disturbing happens." She reminded. "Is there anything you would like to tell me? Anything at all?"  
I thought about it for a minute. There was something weird going on, with the human-sized turtle, mean robots and brain-thingies chasing after my friend. Maybe I should... No. She just would think I'm crazy and drag me back to who knows where to take a break from things; I don't think I need one right now.  
"No, I don't think so." I said in the end.  
"Call me if anything happens, ok?" She said. "And you do know you can call me any day whatever the time is, right?"  
"I know." I sighed.  
"Good." Kiriko said. "Now, is your father there?"  
"He's gone to the store buying food and stuff." I lied because I knew I would soon have an over concerned and bossy mother-like figure here pissing me and everybody else off if I'd told her of my dad's absence.  
"I see." Kiriko said. "Tell him that I would like to have a word with him."  
"I will." I promised. "Good night, Kiriko."


	6. Chapter 4 - Chased

**A/N:** I hate this chapter, as you can see I suck at writing with the writer's P.O.V. Marie is bit of damsel here, and there's not much going on with her Raphael. The next one will mainly focus on Raph getting to know Marie (I don't know how I'm going to do that but..) as well the future chapters will be focusing on building their friendship, I mean there's gotta be friendship between them. If I had to pick my favorite moment from this rubbish chapter, it would be the last fragment, just because I get to write my favorite character in the story (though she won't be making appearances until a certain point.)

I would like to those readers who wrote me a comment/or review, saying that they liked the story, this might sound stupid but that kind of comments made me want to write this story – even if this chapter sucks :D Thank you very much!

**Update:** As I re-read this one and fixed ton of typos it made me realize this wasn't actually that bad of chapter, yay!

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Chapter 4: Chased

Marie Blomgren sighed deeply, causing her dog Roy to look up on her with a curious look. It was yet another cold and windy day in New York City. His owner looked tired as she had done for few days, Roy didn't understand why, but he wanted to cheer her up a bit, so the German Shepherd went and bite the wooden ice hockey stick his owner was holding on her right hand, Roy tried to take it from Marie, they used to play this game when Roy was little, it was always fun.  
"Hey, stop it!" Marie shouted as she tried to pull the stick away from her dog's teeth. "Seriously, Roy! This isn't mine! If you break it Hannes will end me!"  
In the end she managed to get the stick back from Roy's jaws, and she hoped Hannes wouldn't notice that his ice hockey stick was partly covered by a dog drool. _Roy was still such a puppy_, Marie thought. He was already three years old but of course, it didn't stop him from being a playful prankster. Marie sighed again as she remembered why she was walking to the ice rink with her classmate's ice hockey stick, it was because he had lost his temper, Nils – the class clown had teased him, and Hannes left his stick behind, forgetting it in his anger, he needed it, Oliver said, he had practice today. Marie suggested that Oliver could take it to him, since his uncle was the coach, but he was too afraid of Hannes's gusts of anger – and Marie didn't blame him. She was once neighbors with Hannes, and she had witnessed few of those gusts of anger. For example, once there was this guy who loved to bully Marie and Hannes's younger sister, Liisi. Hannes told the guy to stop if he didn't want to wake up at the wrong side of his bed on the next morning. Hannes didn't kill him, of course not, but the poor guy had to spend two weeks in the hospital. That bad Hannes's temper was when someone seriously angered him.

Nils of course wouldn't want to come any nearer to Hannes that he had to, and for that Marie was thankful, she didn't like Nils that much, she never did. Nils was the kind of guy who thought of how funny he was, he was one loud mouth, and Marie was never fond of noisy people and besides she was too tired to handle Nils's annoyance anyway. Marie had been tired for many days, weeks perhaps. Maybe it was because the school and the ballet – she basically lived on the ballet studio, or perhaps it was this city itself, Marie sure wasn't the first person who had just lived New York for couple of months and felt like not fitting in.  
"Here it is." Marie said as they reached the ice rink. "Roy, be on your best behavior now, don't act like big brother Thorin."  
Roy looked up at his owner and let out one bark as a reply.  
And they entered the ice rink; just as Marie opened the door she could hear Hanne's voice raging to someone.  
_Maybe we should return later,_ Marie thought. But she tossed that idea; she should just drop the thing in and be on her way. There was Hannes looking dangerously like he wanted to chop the guy from the art classes on tiny pieces, but the coach was standing between them, preventing Hannes from doing what he knew the best. Marie was amazed of how the coach, who was tinier than Hannes himself, managed to drag him away, probably back to the changing room. Everyone else were watching what happened between the crazy Finnish dude and Jones from the Roosevelt high school, so no one even noticed Marie, until she closed the door behind herself. Everyone turned around and looked at her.  
"What?" Marie asked. Marie wasn't that into attention so she looked at the white German shepherd and sighed. "Well it looks like we have to wait a moment until we can give this thing back to Hannes."  
"I'm sure glad he didn't have that with him today." The guy Hannes had fought with said as he skated to the edge of the ice rink. "Tell me something, has that dude always been like that?"  
"Yeah, as far as I can remember." Marie sighed. "It has gotten a lot worse though."  
"What is his deal?" Dark haired boy asked.  
"Well..." Marie said and thought for a moment what should she say, she sure didn't want to tell about Hannes's private life to someone he clearly didn't like. "He's been through a lot of difficult things lately, I guess."  
"I see." He said as he couldn't think of anything else to say, and for that Marie was happy. "About the other night, you weren't going tell anybody what you saw?"  
"To who I am going to tell?" Marie asked. "If I would, I think people would just start to call me crazy and lock me up into some mental hospital, no one is ever going to believe me if I would tell I saw you know exactly what."  
"Good, I mean Raph was pretty sure you would keep your mouth shut." He said. "But you guys never talked about him existing being a secret, right?"  
"I haven't talked much; mostly I've just rab away, since first time we met, he seemed pretty keen on punching my face." Marie sighed. "But anyway, his secret, whatever it is, is safe."  
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Hannes's voice asked behind Marie's back.  
"I brought you this." Marie said and handed the worn out hockey stick to Hannes. "See you."

Marie decided to go to take a little walk across the Chinatown, since she had an hour before her ballet classes would start and she had always wanted to visit there.  
"Hey Blomgren, wait up!" Marie heard Hannes calling her, he was that type of guy who never admitted he was familiar with anybody, he never addressed Marie by her name, only as "Blomgren" or "You", which was totally fine with Marie.  
"What do you want, Hannes?" Marie asked. "Did you get kicked out?"  
"Well yeah, coach said that I should go and cool it down." Hannes said as he reached Marie. "Man, you're tinier than you look from over there."  
"Thanks." Marie mumbled but she didn't mean it.  
"So where are you headed?" Hannes asked.  
"I planned to walk around the Chinatown." Marie said.  
"You shouldn't go alone." Hannes warned. "All kinds of baddies walk around there. You are just the type purple dragons would love to rob."  
"Purple what?" Marie asked and sharpened her voice. "And I'm not alone, I have Roy with me."  
"You do realize we are in New York, don't you?" The boy asked. "Just having a dog with you doesn't mean you're safe."  
"Yeah, whatever." Marie mumbled, she hated it when she was treated as a weak girl, but she didn't want to be mean to Hannes and tell him to go hell knows where. "How's your mom?"  
"She's better." Now it was Hannes's turn to mumble. "She still misses Liisi."  
"Don't us all." Marie sighed.  
"If only she was here." Hannes said quietly. "If only I had..."  
"Hey don't blame yourself." Marie said. "Look, I don't know what it's like to lose someone but I do know what it's like not to have a sister anymore."  
Hannes was more than happy to change the subject away from his family tragedy, when he thought about it, he didn't actually know anything about Marie's background, she had just been with the cranky old neighbor when he had returned from god knows where, she didn't talk much, she was always by herself, until she befriended Hannes's sister and had few other kids, but never did Marie mention her life before Mr. Blomgren had adopted her and taken her as his daughter.  
"Did you have a sister?" He asked.  
"I didn't say that." Marie told him in convoluted way.

"Hey, what's going on?" Marie asked, they had walked towards some small restaurant, that was called something like _Murakami-san noodle shop_ or something, and there seemed to be something going on.  
"Purple dragons." Hannes said. Both Marie and Hannes rushed to see what was going on inside the restaurant and they weren't the only ones, other people watched the situation from outside as well, Marie could clearly hear that there was something violent going on inside, she could hear the threats someone was throwing at to – what sounded to be an older man.  
"Why aren't any of you doing anything?" Marie shouted. "Call the cops, god dammit!"  
"It's none of our business." Some middle aged man replied. This angered Marie, here they are listening as someone got robbed and decided not to do anything about it.  
"Then why the fuck are you all standing here for?" Hannes shouted angrily. "Are you enjoying this? You sick bastards!"  
Then he rushed inside, Marie went with him, no matter how physically strong Hannes was, he didn't know what was going on inside, it could be some armed robbery like the one in the movie Marie's father liked to watch. But there were no guns included; there were only three young men with weapons, not guns though.  
"Is there a problem here?" Hannes asked loudly.  
"Get lost kid." Someone really skinny said.  
"It's you who needs to get lost." Hannes said in tough way he always did when he was looking for a fight.  
"Hey you're that kid from yesterday." The one who looked like he was leading this group of three said while looking at the comers. "And you brought your girlfriend along."  
"Hey, wait a minute!" Marie yelled annoyed. "I'm not his-" But no one gave a crap about what she had to say.  
"You know what Roy?" Marie sighed, very angered as she looked at her dog, who looked up to her hearing her voice. "This freaking sucks!"  
Marie didn't listen much when she was angry, so she missed the part where Hannes led the ugly guys outside.  
"You stay here and check if the old man is alright." He had said. Marie started to feel like she was treated like some freaking damsel who couldn't do anything but get herself into trouble. Marie knew she was no damsel, but she also knew that Hannes didn't. But still she did what Hannes had told her to do. She went to help the older man lying on the ground, Marie wondered if he had hurt himself, because he didn't get up.  
"Hey, are you hurt?" Marie asked upon kneeling down seeing if the poor man was even alive.  
"No." He replied. "Are they gone?"  
"Yeah, my stupid ex-neighbor went to get his ass kicked by them, but don't worry, he's strong." Marie said. "Let me help you up."

"Say, why didn't anyone come to help?" Marie asked as he helped the man back to his feet again. "There were many people outside, just standing there."  
"Were there?" Man asked, seemingly he either didn't know or hadn't noticed. "I guess that's just how it is in this country."  
"So they just stand there without doing a thing when someone needs their help?" Marie asked amazed. Her father had always tell her to help those in need of it. Just like he had helped Marie all those years ago back in Russia.  
"Many people around here are afraid of the purple dragons." He explained. "I can't really blame them."  
"I hate this country." Marie mumbled, but for some reason that man heard her.  
"You're from the other country then?"  
"I'm from Scandinavia." Marie said, Roy barked out, like he was saying _"Me too!"_  
"You brought a dog with you?" He asked, which Marie found weird, hadn't he spotted the white furred thing earlier?  
"Yeah, I would've left him outside, but with those creeps outside, I don't think it's safe." Marie explained. "But Roy knows how to behave." Then she looked strictly at her dog, who responded to her look by sitting down, appearing as calm he possibly could.  
"It's quite alright." He said. "You haven't told me your name."  
"Marie." Marie said. "And I take it you're Murakami-san." She finally remembered the name of the restaurant and from that he assumed the older man was Murakami-san.

It didn't take long for Roy to get nervous, Marie didn't blame him for she had too heard a loud voices coming from outside.  
"Maybe I should take a look." Marie suggested and headed for the door.  
"Be careful." Murakami-san told her.  
"I will." Marie promised as she opened the door. There were no people around anymore, Marie guessed they all just left for home or something. There were no purple dragons either as far as Marie could see, but Hannes was there, he was still fighting with someone Marie couldn't see.  
"Hannes, give it a rest already." Marie sighed. She was getting bored or more likely annoyed by this macho attitude of his. Marie was going to say it straight to his face, but when she approached him, Hannes suddenly yelled:  
"Stay away, there's still one of them I haven't kicked yet!"  
"Right now I don't give a damn!" Marie screamed.  
"What the heck?" Hannes asked clearly not paying much attention to Marie but someone behind her instead. Marie turned around only to see a familiar face.  
"It's freaking walking lizard!" Hannes yelled, Marie looked at him annoyed then she looked at the green dude. Seriously, was Hannes blind or something?  
"I'm not a lizard I'm a turtle, you idiot!" Annoyed mutant turtle yelled at him, his emerald eyes burning with rage.  
"Or just a mad man in reptile costume." Marie suggested jokingly.

Raphael looked at the braid headed girl he didn't know if he was more annoyed by her appearing again out of nowhere or that seemingly she was a friend of that another one, Raphael was going to fight but then this replica of Karai showed up. And she called him with that annoying nickname of hers.  
"You got that right." Annoying guy replied.  
"It's freaking human-sized turtlezard." Okay, this guy surely wasn't the sharpest needle in the stack. "What next? Aliens? Robot Assassins?"

"Roy, what is it?" Marie asked as she heard her dog growling – which he didn't do quite often, Roy gazed his reddish brown eyes up, there, high on the building standing next to the restaurant, up there were standing three of what appeared to look human, but the weirdest thing was, Roy couldn't smell anything human-like from them, he smelled something that told his instincts to warn his owner about their presence.  
"That is the one which is known as Raphael that is known as one of the turtles, when Kraang will destroy the one known as Raphael which is one of the turtles, Kraang will be rewarded by the Kraang prime."  
"What the fu..." Hannes cursed. Those men, or whatever they were drew out their guns – if you could call it that. Marie stepped back, however she couldn't link these men back to that day at school few weeks ago. She noticed the similarities between the men to those that chased her and Oliver, but Oliver wasn't here.  
"You just had to open your trap." Raphael growled as he dodged one laser beam aimed at his direction.  
"Blomgren, you get back inside!" Hannes yelled as he grabbed Marie's hand pulling her out of the way of next laser beam.  
"Listen, punk." Marie said extremely annoyed. "Do you think it would do anything? Because something tells me they will just follow and shoot me wherever I go."  
As he stared at the men trying to end them all, or the green hot head, who Marie noticed grinning to the face – or faces of danger, he didn't wait them for to get down, instead he went to them. Striking the men with his sai, like he had no fear at all.  
"That's one mad turtlezard." Hannes said. "Blomgren, I don't know what is exactly going on here, but you should just go, it could get really dangerous over here."  
"It already is." Marie whispered, for she had already seen that they too were surrounded by three other men – identical to each other.  
"Who invited these guys?" Hannes asked. Marie started to freak out, for one she didn't – again have any kind of weapon, not even that thick history book she used as a weapon last time, only her ballet outfit and shoes.

Roy barked at them, he stepped in front of Marie, in order to protect her, but that ended up too quickly, his barks were covered by the noise of laser beams shot at their direction, Marie felt someone pulling her away from danger.  
"Roy!" She yelled, for fearing her dog wouldn't make it, but soon she felt him pressing his fur against her feet, like he was saying: _"Here I am."  
_"Come on, let's go out of the cross fire." Hannes said. He pulled Marie from her hand away from danger – or as far as they could get to which wasn't much, Marie soon found herself stuck behind the garbage cans along with much bigger Hannes who took half of the space. But hiding from attackers wouldn't do any good and they both knew it.  
"We're sitting ducks!" Marie said.  
"Do you have better plan in mind, then?" Hannes asked annoyed.  
Marie closed her eyes for second, which she often did when she needed to figure out something and fast. She remembered how she managed to run away from the creepy robot for the first time.  
"I need you to take Roy and distract those guys." Marie said.  
"And?" Hannes asked.  
"It's just a plan; I don't know it will work on these guys." Marie said. "We just have to try."  
"And _if_ it doesn't work out?" Hannes asked.  
Marie looked at the guy, this was all she could think of, didn't he see that?  
"Alright." Hannes growled as he stood up. "Let's try it."

"Hey stinker!" Hannes provoked, those things and carefully, Marie glimpsed of how it looked, all of those men, or whatever they were, were now attacking the green thing, two of them turned their heads around to look at Hannes.  
"It is a human known as a human." Another said with mechanic voice. "And it is trying to provoke Kraang."  
"Cool, so you noticed." Hannes grinned. At this point Marie stopped listening, trying to turn circular garbage cans around, though she was bothered by Roy's barking and gun shots. Hannes seemed to be doing fine, for months he hadn't had so good work out, which he could replace now by trying to dodge the laser beams those freaks – as he had started calling them in his head, shot at his direction, at the same time as he checked if Marie was doing something, soon enough he figured out her plan and smirked. Roy seemed to be doing just fine, he tried to bite the poor guy he was bothering, however he didn't seem to get the grip of anything he tried to bite, it was too hard for his teeth. Marie looked for a right moment to kick the garbage cans at them. She wanted to be sure they would hit the target and soon she got her chance. She saw another of those creeps having his back turned, that was the best it could be. Marie kicked the garbage can and indeed it hit the target, what was even better was the he was stepping back, Marie guessed he was going to shoot and decided to do it little farer away from his target and then he stumbled into a garbage can and fell down. However as he or whatever the thing was ready to shoot and his gun kind of fired and shoot the laser high up on the air.  
"Hey, watch it!" Annoyed voice yelled at them from above before he jumped off the building and beheaded still standing man – and it was perfectly clear that this man who lost his head or his comrades were no human, Marie and Hannes both heard this electric kind of sound, Marie could swear she saw this purplish electricity glow coming from the thing before something else making horrible noises popped out of its chest, something pink and tentacle legged, something who was in hurry of getting away – and heading towards Marie – but this time she was ready.  
When it came she kicked it with all she got and yelled: "You're not dancing on my face this time, pal!"

Soon enough Hannes found himself running for his life once again – with that weird turtle lizard thing, for the fight seemingly was not over quite yet for they had just started a fun game of the cat and mouse, expect that they were the hunted, and chased by what appeared to be yet more of those robots in suits.  
"Where did these guys come from?" Hannes though aloud as he was running away as fast as he could.  
"You wouldn't believe me if I'd told you." Turtle lizard thing said, sounding angry but then again who wouldn't when chased by crazy machines. Hannes had no idea how far they had ran, but then they came across a bridge – Hannes thought it must be some old bridge they used to cross the river by cars but there appeared to be a sign that said: _Off the limits_, so Hannes thought it must be broken or something, yet he had no choice but to step on it in order to get to the other side. But the chasers followed them anyway, the turtle lizard seemed to get tired of running away – though there was freaking seven of those things wanting to kill him, he didn't seem to mind, but before he could actually attack or do anything the huge tidal wave came and flushed everyone away, Hannes managed to grab something rusty so he didn't end up in the river.  
"What the hell was that?" He asked. "I don't think there should be any waves that big at this late of autumn."  
"Hey Blomgren, are you still alive?" Hannes asked jokingly, for he assumed Marie to be there too, but he soon noticed she wasn't. Hannes – no matter how he didn't want to admit it felt fear, what if she had fallen down and drowned? The fault would be his and his alone, he was older than her, so he should've made sure that the girl was safe. First one to go was his sister and now it was her best friend's turn._ This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't..._  
Then he heard someone reaching the surface and gasping for air. Judging what it sounded like it was that turtle lizard thing.  
"You didn't see Blomgren down there, did you?" He yelled at the bridge.  
"I didn't see her." He heard the answer. Raphael however heard something from the shore, some low noises, so he decided to go and take a look – you wouldn't know if there was something else you could kick and destroy over there, so he swam to the shore only to see that the missing girl – who again, looked exactly like another girl around here Raphael wasn't too fond of (like his brother Leo was), yet again she seemed to be in trouble, she was attacked by a foot bot, _again!_  
"Well." Raphael smirked. Still he got the fight he wanted. He jumped out of the water and attacked the robot that didn't even see him coming and seemingly didn't notice a thing before it had lost its head. Then she got up, holding her left arm, Raphael assumed she had been cut over there.  
"Thanks." She said then smiled, a smile that didn't fit for someone who looked like the girl from the foot clan.  
"I didn't do it for you." Raphael said coldly.  
"I know." She said and her smile softened a bit, that made her look a little prettier, but only a little.

"_Itadakimasu!"_ Marie said with enthusiastic voice, when she was sitting next to Raphael at Murakami's place.  
"You have been watching too much _anime_ with that Granberg boy." Her friend sitting on her left side mumbled.  
In front of her was a huge bowl of Japanese _Ramen_ and she seemed to be really happy about it.  
"It's great!" She said when she tasted it. "I haven't eaten Japanese ramen for ages!"  
Hannes ate his _pizza gyoza_ but was disturbed by Roy's squeaking noises several times, the dog looked at Hannes – probably he was hungry too.  
"Roy stop teasing Hannes." Marie scolded her dog.  
"Give it a rest, Blomgren." Hannes said. "He's just hungry, I'll give him just two of these."  
Marie didn't say a thing, though she intended to, but decided to eat first.  
"I'll better get going." Hannes said and left the rest of his food to Roy who started eating it happily.  
"Hey, Hannes." Marie said quickly before he left the restaurant. "You won't mention this to anyone would you?"  
"Hell no." He replied. "I'm not that eager to go see doctor Granberg." Then he left  
"Who's that?" Raphael asked.  
"Doctor who always takes care of me when I've managed to injure myself or got a cold." Marie said. "He's also a psychiatrist. Not that I've ever been talking to him about my problems."  
"So I take it you aren't going to tell anybody?" Raphael asked.  
"Are you crazy?" Marie asked.  
"That's what you said the first time we met." Raphael reminded, as he remembered Marie calling him crazy.  
"Don't worry, I'm not gonna tell." Marie smiled. Then she ate the rest of her ramen and stood up, she put her dog back on the leash.  
"Well I better head for the ballet studio." She said. "Thanks for the food, Murakami-san, it was great." Then she left as well.

As for that another girl, her day was far from good for a multiple reasons, she decided to take a walk – this time like a normal girl, not like a _kunoichi_ for a reason she didn't know, she just felt doing it. She wasn't feeling happy or anything, she just wanted to kick something, so you could image that some random girl with braids walking with her dirty dog or more like running in hurry and then colliding directly on her, so they both fell down to the ground. As you can guess the other girl wasn't too happy about it – yet another reason why she hated this day.  
"Hey, watch where you're going!" She said angrily to our Marie, who didn't even bother to look at the person she had collide with – just because she had accidentally let go the leash that was holding her reckless dog. But if she had bothered to look who she had stumbled to, she might have had a shock of a life time.  
"Sorry." She said quickly and stood up. "You're so not running away!"  
She ran after her dog before he could run away again. However the other girl, no matter how pissed off she was right now, she became very bothered of the girl with a dog. She didn't see her that well but now that she looked at the running girl, Marie without knowing this started to remind her of something, or rather _someone_. The other girl didn't know what was the reason of her trying to follow that clumsy girl but she did it anyway, however Marie was nowhere to be found, she was already gone to the dressing room in the ballet studio, however her dog was found. Roy sat as peacefully as he could on the lobby by the door and its glass that allowed him to see outside. He saw the other girl and the thing that seemed funny about her was that she looked almost just like his owner, so Roy became excited and barked at her. The other girl smiled, for she had always wanted to have a pet of her own.  
"What's with you, Blomgren?" She heard a voice, a girly, snobbish voice behind her back. There was few girls standing there, all slim girls who seemed like they thought they were pretty ones, the girl that had spoken had long auburn hair and smelled like she had just wasted whole bottle of perfume on herself. She looked exactly one of those pretty popular girls at school – when the other girl still went to school that is. She was never one of them and never wanted to be.  
"Jeez, you look horrible." The girl said and went inside. The other girl decided that there was no point of staying here, not even if the girl could be the one she almost looked like she could – and even if she was how would've she travelled all the way to America by herself?


	7. Chapter 5 - Attack of the Face Huggers

**A/N:** And it didn't take like two months to finish this chapter, as always I'm not completely satisfied of how the fighting scenes and some dialog came out, but at least it didn't torn my nerves a part like the previous chapter did. As always if my OC (Marie) seems Mary-Sue like I hope you will tell me and I'll do my best to fix it. Enjoy the chapter!

Oh, and as for the Finnish phrase Marie uses in this chapter it translates "16 of hell." It sounds better in Finnish though.

**Update:** Fixed some typos.

* * *

Chapter 5 – Attack of the Face Huggers

It all started when my phone rang. I was doing some unpacking – finally. I was very lazy of doing that. I had put all my clothes to my wardrobe on the same night we moved in, but other things that weren't my laptop or my drawing items were still remaining inside the boxes.  
The phone rang, not my cellphone but our phone dad had brought us from Finland. He didn't like to call anyone with a cellphone; I guess it was too modern for him. I had put the phone upstairs - because that was where I spent most of my spare time.  
"Blomgren residence." I said formally like they did in movies.  
"How is it going, sprout?" I heard my dad's voice probably from the other side of the world.  
"Hey, dad!" I replied cheerfully, I had high hopes that he would tell me of his coming back from Russia  
"How are you?"  
"That's what I asked from you, kid." He replied.  
"I'm doing fine, it's kind of busy at the school and we're doing ballet this year in the ballet company!" I told him.  
"What ballet?" He asked, even though, I knew he didn't like ballet.  
"Swan Lake I heard." I said. "It's going to be difficult though."  
"Why, is that spoiled brat bullying you again?" Dad asked.  
"Kind of, but why would I be offended by some stupid gossip someone that has no brains of her own throws at me?" I asked.  
"That's what I wanted to hear." Dad laughed then he started coughing.  
"Dad, are you alright?" I asked worried.  
"It's just a cold." He said. "Speaking of which I'm in the hospital right now, but you don't need to worry."  
"Should I come to see you?" I asked.  
"No. I'll be here for a while, but don't you worry about me. These people just want to keep me here for two weeks..."  
"Dad!" I shouted. "For two weeks? What did you do?"  
"Okay, I had the tiniest hunting accident, I twisted my ankle, that's all." Dad said. "And with the cold they don't want to let me go until I'm healed completely."  
"But you'll be home after two weeks, right?" I asked.  
"That's a promise." He said, sounding bit amused.  
"You'd better keep that promise then!" Just because first he was going to be away for one week, and after freaking month passed and it was getting pretty lonely in here.

I sighed when I was done with the call. Another two weeks alone in this rat hole. Of course I didn't mean it, I liked this place ok, but the thing is, I've started to miss Finland and our real home, even though our house was middle of nowhere. Thorin pressed his body against by feet and looked at me, whining.  
"Two more weeks." I sighed then I went back to my room, one look at the unpacked boxes was enough to make me sick.  
"Come on, boy. Let's take a walk." I said to the black and white Karelian bear dog, he barked as a reply.  
"Mom, you make sure that Roy behaves." I told the Finnish Spitz. "Because if I find my room destroyed - again, it'll be the end of him!"

Cold night air usually did the trick for me. It calmed me down, I wasn't restless but whenever I felt lonely getting away from that house usually helped. I admit it wasn't a smart idea for a girl to go and take a walk when it was late like this but I had a scary dog with me and this time we wouldn't go to take adventures in the dark alleys.  
Thorin barked few times for other dog owners walking their dogs, Thorin didn't like other dogs that much, of course he got along with Mom and Roy – mostly Mom though, Roy some-what annoyed him.  
I knew most of those people didn't like us, because of those three horrid dogs of mine. And for Thorin he just couldn't keep his mouth shut.  
Tonight he was extra restless, but I couldn't blame him, we both knew there was something weird going on in this city, we had seen a killer robots and who knows what else lied in here. But this time we were to stay near the house, I didn't want any problems, not tonight.  
But then again when you didn't want any problems that was exactly what you would get.

Thorin growled at something, warning me or whoever was there, to not get too close.  
"What is it?" I asked, but he only continued to growl at something I didn't see or feel anything out of the ordinary, not just yet anyway. It was stupid of me to continue walking; I just thought it could be something totally harmless. Sometimes Thorin would just go and growl at pigeons or pretty much anything that bothered him, whether he was over protective or it was just in his instinct. Then I heard the gun shots, of course it startled me, what was going on ahead? It was probably some shooting incident, like one you would hear from the news or something, and I so didn't want to witness that, I would get shot at if I were lucky.  
"Come on, let's go home." Though I didn't fancy returning just yet it was way better than being shot at. Thorin just stood there growling at the still empty road. He sharpened his hearing and seemed to be ready to jump on whoever was going this way, after a while even I could hear the rustling noise of gravel as someone was running towards us. For all I knew it could be some crazy person with a gun, so I decided go and hide in nearest bush, since there was no other place to hide it just had to do. But for one it wasn't a crazy person, or maybe it was, I didn't really know the guy personally. It was the same masked guy I've met few nights back in the alley when some brilliant guys thought of robbing me, only to get a taste of Mom's teeth and few kicks by that weird green guy and his friend who ran towards my bush.  
Obviously someone was chasing him, someone I didn't want to meet, but still I couldn't just mind my own business like a wise person would do.  
"Hey... uh... Jonesy." I said slowly because I thought I couldn't remember his name right away. "Here."  
"Hey, if it isn't Raph's girl." He said out of breath. "Why are you hiding over there?"  
Thorin growled suspiciously at him.  
"Oh." Jonesy said before quickly watching behind his back.  
"Hide, quickly." I told him.  
There was no need for telling it twice, the masked guy probably knew it was the wisest thing to do right now so he hid himself right next to me, watching anxiously from the bush as the - I can't believe it, it was a freaking robot on the loose.  
"It's just one." Boy sighed. "I can take care of that by my..." But then we both heard the loud shout coming from behind the thing, something green jumped from the tree and beheaded the robot.  
"Hey, Raph. That was my kill!" Jonesy shouted slightly annoyed as he stared at the human sized turtle from the bush.  
"Then why are you hiding over there like a coward?" Green-eyed turtle smirked.  
"I wasn't hiding; I was protecting... uh...protecting your girlfriend." Jonesy said and looked at me.  
"His what?" I asked.  
"You again." Turtle said as he noticed me after I came out of the bush feeling like I took half of leafs with me. Thorin replied by growling angrily at him.  
"And you." He sighed. "What are you even doing here?"  
"I live nearby." I said, I laid my eyes to headless robot, it looked like one of those robots that were chasing after me and Hannes the other night. That robot just didn't have a suit on.  
"These guys again?"  
"They really like chasing after us." Jonesy said. "Hey how do you know about these creeps?"  
"I don't." I said. "I've just come across these guys a few times."

As I was going to leave, because I really didn't want to play another sitting duck for crazy robots to shoot at, Thorin growled - again, but he had left the Greenie alone, this time he growled at something that jumped out of the robot and did this snarling kind of noise. I remembered that noise and I also remembered the pink brains dancing on my face a few weeks ago. Thorin pulled himself away from me, I didn't expect him to go crazy like this, he barked and then he followed the running (if you even could call that running) brain thing across the forest line.  
I cried out few good old Finnish curse words and then just: "Get back here! Don't you think I'm going to come after you!"  
I sighed in frustration. _Fine. I'm going home.  
_"Are you just going to leave your dog here?" Jonesy asked.  
"He'll find his way home." I said. "When he gets like this there's no way to stop the hunter in him."  
I turned my back on them, to go home, if my instict was correct, by the time I got there Thorin was already out there waiting for me.  
"Hey Raph, I thought there were more of those." Jonesy said.  
"There were." Turtle admitted. "But now there isn't." I assumed he had just kicked the hell out of whatever it was they were talking about.  
"Kraang has found the target that needs to be destroyed by Kraang." Mechanic male voice said right behind of us. As I looked back I noticed it wasn't just one but a whole army of those robots and they had us surrounded.  
_"Voi helvetin kuustoista."_ I sighed.  
"So, you lost them?" Jonesy asked teasingly.  
"What does it matter, already found them." Greenie smirked.  
"Why is it whenever I see you I always get stabbed or shot at?" I asked. How was I going to get out this one?  
"Bad karma?" Jonesy suggested.

_Marie, you're so screwed up_ I told myself. Yet it seemed like I was the only one thinking this way that Jonesy guy didn't waste too much time before starting his attacking move, at first I thought he was just going to swing his hockey stick or just using it as a hitting weapon, but no, he had some kind of puck with small exploding thing attached to it, the puck didn't even hit the land as he launched it into the air, it exploded as it hit the target – and with it one of the robots surrounding us.  
"Wow, I hope he doesn't lend those to Hannes." I thought to myself. Because that would only lead to destruction. Then I heard the noise gun loading and it was coming from right in front of me.  
"Oh, crap..." I panicked there seemed to be the endless count of these guys and only one of me, so that could only lead to one thing only, anyone would panic in this situation, right? Kiriko had often told me, should I ever got myself into situation where I am outnumbered I should try to escape no matter what, she told me to use my feet as a weapon if I hadn't anything else to use, and I knew why, I had been dancing, training my feet in one way possible for almost nine years, meaning my feet power could get me out of the trouble – at least that's what she told me. So I did one jump, I could jump higher if I only had my ballet shoes on, but I didn't. I tried to jump as high as I could with these shoes, I managed to jump on the head of the robot standing behind me with its back turned, it was trying to shoot the mad looking turtle, and I didn't spent more than few seconds on it, because thanks to my weight it could fall down and I with it, I jumped back to the ground, trembling from fear, or possibly from too much of excitement – I wouldn't know which one caused it, probably fear. I started looking for the nearest way out of this mess.  
"Watch your back, will you?" Greenie shouted at me angrily as he had to jump between me and another robot that was going to aim his big gun at my head. With few jumps I could make it out of here, and then a thought struck me, what about these guys? I mean it would be wrong to just leave them here, these robots would easily out run them, but what could I do against big guns without a decent weapon? Not even the strength my feet had would help any.  
I heard the explosion coming from the behind. Another headless robot fell to its knees – or to be more precisely it almost fell on me, and as it did something kind of slimy and pink hit me, or that's how it seemed at first, I fell down right to the bush nearby, it was my unlucky night I guess, because I was standing on, it was either very small hill or a downhill, well you all know what is it like to fall down across downhill, right? It wasn't actually nice, I hit my head to something – I guess it was a tree, but what bothered me more than just a new bump on my head was the pink face hugger thing on my face, I had seen plenty of alien movies to know what they were usually up to.  
I must've looked like an idiot trying to get the thing off of my face, I shook my head rapidly, but it just wouldn't go off. I couldn't see a thing and believe me I was going to freak out. I tried hitting it with my fist but it bit me hard on my fist, I would have screamed because it hurt like hell, it was like ten really sharp spikes were stabbed under my skin for a second I thought it's teeth were going to pierce my fist in half. I heard this hollow kind of noise; and suddenly I was free to breathe.

The pink brain thing looked like it had huge bruise on the left side of its face, which is weird thing to say, because it only had a face and tentacles, so wouldn't that mean it's face would also be its body?  
"You really don't know how to care of yourself, do you?" Greenie asked and sounded kind of angry or more like furious.  
I didn't reply, I was too busy breathing oxygen.  
"I – Thought – I was going to die.."  
"Well you didn't." He said rudely. "Get lost, we have too much going on here, we have no time to rescue you in every tenth second."  
Well, it wasn't like I wanted to be some damsel in distress all the time. But I was too tired to argue, I should just go home, I was only in their way here. So I got up and ran.

I heard the Thorin's barking noises from far away, I rushed back home, no matter how lonely it was in there, at least I would be safe. Thorin waited for me in the yard, he was dirty, I bet he chased that face hugger thing through all the muddiest places we had nearby. I didn't believe it, when I saw it, on his feet there was something pink lying there, pink and from what I could see bloody. It didn't move or do the snarling voice so Thorin must've bitten until it was dead. Thorin looked at me proudly with his dark chestnut brown eyes. He was waiting for me to praise his hunting skills but all I could say was:  
"Ew." Then I sighed. "Well at least that thing isn't going to do face hugging to me." Thorin must've smelled the blood that was pouring from my right hand between my index finger and middle finger, because when he came to me, first thing he did was starting to lick the nasty wound I got.  
"It's alright, boy." I said silently. "We're alright." That's what I needed to tell to myself. We were alright; we were, but there seemingly were a lot more of those things out there and thought of it made me feel horrible, I was scared, more than scared. I really wanted dad back here right now, I didn't feel like sleeping in such a place where some freaking face hugger kept parties with their robot houses. I felt like crying. But then I remembered I wasn't that kind of girl who would cry easily.  
"I guess I know who I must call." I sighed. Thorin started to growl, he was well aware of who I was talking about.  
"Relax; I know you don't like her." I said. "I wouldn't want to bother her either, but at the situation like this..."  
After saying that, I dug my cellphone from my pocket and looked for her number, and pressed 'call'.  
I waited for her to answer, I didn't exactly know where that lady was right now, last time we spoke she said she was going to take a trip to Honshu, which is where she used to live for a while years ago if I recalled correctly.  
"Hey you don't mind if we barge in, won't you?" I heard Jonesy's voice from behind me; he was standing at the entry to our yard with Greenie. They startled me for a bit, for I didn't think there was no one else here, I just figured they had fled the scene as well and returned to where ever they came from. I stopped the call, there was no point of calling Kiriko when someone else could hear me whining about my problems.  
"What are you doing here?" I asked while Thorin growled at them.  
"We had to do this tactical retreat." Jonesy said.  
"Oh. I'm not supposed to have any boys here visiting, my dad would kill me." I said. "But he's not here, so..."  
"So we can come in?" Jonesy asked.  
"Just wait a moment; I need to get a shovel to bury that thing." I pointed the dead face hugger with my finger.  
"Jeez, what happened to it?" Jonesy asked.  
"Apparently Thorin happened to it." I said as I headed for the garage, it was just a normal garage with no car inside because of course my dad had it with him, but there was a shovel and a box that said: _"Marie's."  
_"I guess I have one more box to unpack." I sighed as I grabbed the shovel. When I returned I heard Thorin barking and growling.  
"I don't think this guy is a fan of yours, Raph." I heard Jonesy say.  
"He hates almost everyone." I said as I came back. I let those guys inside, I wasn't too worried about then stealing from our place or anything, because I still had two dogs guarding the place.  
"Just don't break anything." I warned them.  
"You're not coming?" Greenie asked.  
"I still need to bury that thing." I sighed. "I'll have a hell a lot of explaining to do if my dad sees it."

Thorin as much as he hated the idea of letting two total strangers in to the house he still stayed with me as I dug the hole for the alien creep. Luckily Thorin was a girl's best friend, such a gentleman, once I had done the work of digging the hole he lifted the thing, holding it from its tentacles and then dropped it down to the hole. Thorin helped me to cover the hole.  
"Thanks, boy." I said as I stroked his head. "I guess someone is getting a free bath tonight."  
Thorin made unpleasant noise as he shook his head.

"I better take this inside as well." I sighed as I left the shovel inside the garage and laid my eyes to the box.  
"Come on, Thorin; let's see what kind of mess awaits us."  
"Aww, he likes you!" I heard Jonesy saying, he sounded amused.  
"Do me a favor and help me get this thing off of me." Greenie growled.  
"I'm kind of busy right now." Jonesy said as I entered my home. There they were, Jonesy stroking Mom's... I mean Storm's fur and talking to her.  
"Have you bitten any mean old guys lately? Have you?"  
Storm of course answered by giving a kind bark to the speaker.  
"Good girl." He praised her.  
"Aww, you have made a friend?" I said to Roy, because he had (at least it seemed that way) jumped on Greenie and attempted to lick his face and by the looks of it Greenie wasn't too fond of his newly founded friend.  
"Get this over sized fur ball off of me, will you?"  
There was no need of me getting involved, because as Roy saw me he left the turtle alone and was probably going to do the same with me, but Thorin stepped between us and growled to white shepherd warningly, he didn't sound angry as if he would attack the other dog he saw as nothing more than a puppy that had born without brains, by growling at Roy Thorin only meant: _"Don't you dare to try or else." _As for Roy he knew who was boss in here so he stayed where he was.

"Not you too." I sighed because as Storm noticed I had deep wound between my fingers she started to play a mom, I tried to place the box to the nearest table or somewhere certain over curious white German shepherd wouldn't reach. That would be in the kitchen, so I went there, Jonesy and Greenie followed me as did all three of my dogs.  
"What's in the box?" Jonesy asked.  
"Just some stuff that probably got lost when we moved in." I sighed. "Apparently it's my stuff, but I have no idea what's in here."  
As I opened the box it was clear dad had packed this one, some of these things weren't even mine. There were some of dad's working files, Aunt Mina's Alien film collection, aunt Mina was dad's wife who was actually named Marie too but everyone called her Mina, she died in accident years before I became a part of his family, I heard Alien films were her passion.  
"That looks painful." Jonesy said, I knew he meant the biting wound I had received. "Shouldn't you go and see the doctor?"  
"Nah, not this late." I said as I went to the fridge and took out the thing I still used for cleaning wounds.  
"That's gonna hurt." Greenie pointed out, I'm sure he remembered the time I cleaned his wound with this stuff. I poured the liquid straight from the bottle. I bit my tongue, because it stung like hell.  
"Is that stuff what I think it is?" Jonesy asked.  
"Oh, yes." I mumbled. "There's not going to be an alien popping from my chest is there?"  
"I don't think so." Greenie said. "That's just what they do when their house is broken."  
"So I'll be fine?" I asked.  
"You should be." Greenie said sounding bit distant as he almost every time did if he wasn't angry with me for having to save me all the time.  
"You might want to have that checked out though." Jonesy added.  
"I will, if it won't get any better." I promised, I wasn't too keen on explaining - and probably lying to Dr. Granberg about how did I got this wound. I couldn't just tell the man that I was bitten by a pink face hugger that looked like brains, I would find myself lying on the chair as he would decide if I was gone crazy or not.

"Hey, I wondered where this got to." I said as the stinging had gone away a little, I continued to going through the inside of the box. Right under the tapes and dad's files there was my old bow; Kiriko had given to me about five years ago.  
"That's one big bow." Jonesy stated as he watched what I was doing.  
"It's a Japanese bow isn't it?" Greenie asked.  
"It's called _Yumi_ to be exact." I told him.  
"And do you know how to use it?" Now he was clearly trying to annoy me, sure I didn't seem like that type of girl who could use any weapon or at least not to him.  
"No, it's just a pretty accessory I keep in my room, I use it's arrows to sharpen my claws." I said sarcastically not knowing that I had pretty good chance of showing him how I handled the bow.  
"Well we better get going." Greenie said. "I don't think they are around anymore."  
"And I wanted to crush some robots." Jonesy sighed.  
"We can always find more of those." Greenie suggested. "It's not even that late yet."  
I walked them to the door as I was ready say goodbye to them, Greenie opened the door, and there was at least fifteen robots in my yard.  
"You were saying?" I asked.  
"Let's crush some robots!" Jonesy said.  
Thorin who was with me on the door started growling and seemed like he wanted to go and chase the robots away, but he'd only get shot if he did, and I couldn't let that happen. As quickly as I could I grabbed him from his collar and said: "I don't think so buddy." No matter how much he tried, I wouldn't let go, I took him to the bathroom, and closed the door, he would be safe in there. Roy followed me, of course he thought it was a play of some kind, let him think what he will, I needed to shut this one in somewhere too. I quickly let him in dad's room, and closed the door.  
"Sorry about this, buddy. You would only get hurt if you would go out now." I was still holding my Yumi I went to my room to grab the arrow stand, I knew it was in my room, I had just unpacked it before I went out.

I knew I couldn't go out from the door, I would only get shot. And those guys would, I could hear the gunshot and those two shouting something to each other, I hurried to find what was I looking for, luckily I found the arrow stand, I had left it on my desk so I would find it as soon as I would find my Yumi. I lifted the arrow stand and put the thing on my back with its all arrows. As I was going for the window I tripped on something. They were my very old, I mean older pointe shoes, I rolled my eyes.  
"Why not?" I took off my ankle boots and changed them to the old and possibly smaller pointe shoes. I went to the window, it was dark but I could easily see dark pinkish laser like beams glowing in the dark.  
"Well here it goes." I said to myself as I opened the window and climbed out. Somehow I managed to climb – or more likely jump on the tree standing right outside of the window to my room. I needed to get myself to platform – or whatever it was called above the terrace. It was almost reachable if I would jump from here, but it would also go very wrong and I would fall to the ground. I tried it anyway and with pure luck I managed to avoid falling, almost, I managed to grab on something and pull myself up again. I watched the scene from above, Jonesy seemed to be busy with his extra fans that wanted to shoot his head off, but he didn't seem scared at all, he seemed to enjoy the action as for Greenie guy, he seemed to be in trouble, I wasn't quite sure if he had noticed that there was another robot ready to stab his back – or shoot him, as he was ready to behead the robot standing in front of him.  
I took the first arrow from the arrow stand and set the arrow to the bow, I wasn't quite sure how it would go against something made from metal, but at least I tried, I launched the arrow. I didn't believe it, Kiriko must've given me some kind of super arrows because it did pierce the robots head, I mean the arrow drilled itself in the backside of the robot's head. I guess it did some damage to it as the robot fell to its knees and pink brainy face hugger jumped out of it. Greenie had just beheaded the other robot, and now he turned his face on me and shouted angrily at me: "I was going to take care of that!"  
"You're welcome!" I shouted at him as a reply, I jumped down from the roof, because few of still kicking robots that weren't busy with trying to shoot at Jonesy or Green guy were now aiming their guns at me and my house.

"Raph, it looks like you've become the knight in distress!" Jonesy shouted teasingly to his friend.  
"Sip it!" Greenie shouted, as he seemed really pissed off of me taking care of his prey because his attacks seemed to take more aggressive turn. As for me, I was now in theirs "to be killed list" as well, there wasn't much anything I could do than try to survive this. There was a reason why I decided to wear my pointe shoes, I could move, jump more freely while wearing them, sure running wasn't easy with them, but my moving style mainly consisted of doing jumps, and dodging their blasts. So this was more like ballet only with no spinning arounds and stuff and you needed to be careful not to get your head blasted off.  
"The one known as Raphael, has thwarted Kraang's plan for the last time. As for his companion will be exterminated by Kraang." One of the robot said as I was standing next to Greenie I take it his name was Raphael or something. And as for companion... it couldn't mean me, could it? I wasn't his freaking companion! But since Jonesy seemed to be farer away I could hear his explosion pucks from where I was standing, they couldn't have meant him, right?  
"I'm not his freaking companion!" I yelled – but I think no one heard me.  
"Say what it is known as you last wish." The same robot continued.  
"Can these things just shut it?" I asked annoyed, I didn't figure out anything else to say. I dodged another blast.  
"Sure they can." Greenie, Raphael said grinning. "You only need to do this." He said striking one of his daggers into just spoken robot's neck and sliced its head off.  
"And this." He added still grinning.  
"Pretty." I mumbled as yet another blast was coming on my way, and his I jumped while launching another arrow aiming to one of the robots still standing, however this time my arrow didn't do the job for me, sure it hit but it didn't manage to do the damage the earlier one did, this robot was faster one too, it almost got my head as I wasn't fast enough to jump out of its way, but luckily someone else took its head before it managed to blast mine off.  
"Next time you may want to go for the head." Raphael said. I nodded dodging yet another blast, I jumped over one robot, landing right behind of it, I was ready to launch an arrow to it but another robot came to the picture trying to shoot me with it soon loaded gun, I quickly shot an arrow to the gun, it seemed to get stuck in there.  
"This is what is known as not good." Robot said as it was its turn to taste the power of blasting over loaded, over heated explosive gun.  
"That works too." Raphael said as he beheaded the thing behind my back.

Suddenly it was completely silent, after the pink face hugger things escaped from their shells and made their project let's run away from this place known as the yard of Blomgren residence.  
"Was that it?" I heard Jonesy asking. "And I didn't even break a sweat!"  
"Are you kidding me?" I asked, I was covered in sweat and totally out of the breath.  
"There were less of those things than I thought." Raphael said.  
"Less?" I repeated. "How many things you suppose there were? What if they come back?"  
"Nah, they went home where ever that is." The turtle said. "You should be safe."  
"And what about you?" I asked.  
"We got it." Jonesy assured sounding bit too comfident. "We are used to fighting these things."  
"I guess this city is full of things you can't explain." I said aloud. New York is one really big city especially compared to the town I grew up in. New York with only it's side had kind of creeped me out before but if there were things hidden in the dark like these face huggers, I really wanted to go back home no matter how tiny the town was, at least it was safe.  
"Thank you, you saved me – again." I thanked the turtle, if it wasn't for him either one of those robots would've blasted my head off.  
"Just returning a favor." He said not looking at me. "We better go."  
"You fought well, both of you." I said because it was the truth, they did amazing job for fighting those robots, unlike me they seemed to be used to fighting against something like those things.  
Before they went, Raphael turned his face on me and said:  
"You're not so bad yourself."  
"Are you blushing?" Jonesy asked, I couldn't see if he was only teasing his friend or not, they were so far away I couldn't see clearly and it was dark too.  
"I'm not!" Raphael shouted annoyed. I smiled at him; it was nice of him to say such things from my fighting skills that weren't so great and I knew it. I went back inside, I still had to give Thorin the bath and free Roy from dad's room, I had some unpacking to do as well. I guess I figure out tomorrow what I do with those broken robots lying on the yard.


	8. Chapter 6 - To feel or not to feel

**A/N:** I'm truly sorry for everyone who has been waiting for new chapter. I had really busy spring while finishing my on-job-training period for second years, so I didn't have much time to write, of course this chapter was finished on March but I didn't upload it for the reason I felt it wasn't good enough. I was unsure of the scene where Raph has his first real bonding moment with Marie. I didn't feel like the dialog sounded like Raph but all I can say I tried to do better next time. I hadn't watched TMNT for a while while writing this, blame it on the lack of time or the fact I haven't enjoyed the season 3 at all.

By the way, if you want quicker updates on the story, you should check out my deviantart page [ ] usually I upload the chapters there before submitting them anywhere else. For example I uploaded this chapter to deviantart on June, I was going to upload this one here as well, but I wanted to make it up for the lack of chapters so I decided to finish the seventh chapter before doing so.

**Update:** Fixed some typos.

* * *

Chapter 6 – To feel or not to feel

I yawned, it was mere tenth time during the ballet lesson today.  
"You look tired." Percy stated. He was older dancer in the company, in his early twenties, he has always been kind to me, and he was a talented dancer. I had never met any of those boys that took dancing seriously so they could become something, Percy was the first.  
"I had a tough night yesterday." I said as we stood in the line, Percy was standing behind me because Madame wanted male dancers to stand apart from the female dancers.  
"Did something happen?" Percy asked.  
"Not really." Of course it was a lie. I couldn't just go and tell him that I was bitten by a pink brainy face hugger could I? I didn't get much sleep because I let all of my dogs sleep in my room which I wouldn't do normally, normally only Storm would sleep in my room, but Thorin slept right outside of my room, and Roy slept in the living room, they did a lot of loud snoring, that's why I didn't let them to sleep in my room, I got easily distracted when I tried to get some sleep some sounds would bother me and I couldn't sleep at all, but after what happened last night I felt much safer to have all of them around.  
"Will you be my partner then?" Percy asked kindly.  
"Huh?"  
"Didn't you listen?" Percy asked of me. "We need to practice _pas de deux_."  
"Oh, right. It's Friday." I mumbled. Of course it was Friday, we had normal dance lessons in all other days, but during Fridays we got to practice dancing in pairs,_ pas de deux_ should be this dance in ballet that was meant to show the love between two characters or something, I didn't really get it or the fact why we needed to do this, it's not like any of us was actually professional or anything.

Soon enough Percy was standing behind me, his hands were placed on my waist while a romantic music was playing, I stood on my toes and moved myself on the sideway as he was holding me with his warm hands, I lifted my right foot up, normally I would fear of falling on my knees but as Percy was holding me I knew I couldn't fall, he would make sure of that. As he moved, so did I, he moved slowly, giving me sings of how I should move and in which direction. Those little jumps (I don't remember what they are called) felt lighter to do when he was holding and supporting me, even though I was nervous to let him guide me and I think I must've been as red as a tomato during the dance I felt myself being like those famous dancers that danced so gracefully with their partners, trusting their in partners, knowing that they wouldn't let them to fall down, it's stupid to think this but I felt like he wouldn't allow me to fall. It's strange one second ago I felt so nervous of making a fool out of myself in front of him, now I was completely peaceful, until he lifted me up that is. When it comes to _pas de deux_, on the side of falling on my knees this was another thing I feared, I feared of getting lifted, I mean what if I was too heavy and the male dancer didn't have the strength to lift a grease ball like me?! I've heard many stories of young dancers that were too heavy for their partners to lift and failed their careers and they had to lose weight like ten kilograms or something!  
"Don't worry, I've got you." Percy said completely calm as he lifted me up like my weight was nothing to him.

"Did you see how red she went?" I heard those supposed whispers when I stepped in the dressing room.  
Yay. Welcome to the club of spreading rumors, I'm starting to think these girls don't have lives for themselves since gossiping about me seemed to be the most important thing ever, I would get it if I was the "new girl" but I had been coming here for months, you would think they had grown bored of teasing me already. I sighed and packed my skirt in my bag so I could leave. The weather in here was getting colder, so I had dressed in red jacket in the morning, I couldn't afford to get sick now, nor did I want to. I couldn't think of anything worse than having a cold while being trapped in that house, who knows if those things reappeared or something. But I had made myself promise on this morning, I wouldn't think of it, it was freaking Friday, I should be doing something nice and girly like gossiping with my friends, not that my friends would mind, even though they are all guys. I could call Gargie, we could talk about videogames, school, what would be going on back in home, talking to him was easy, talking to Oliver was bit difficult because our recent conversations were all about the creepiness that surrounded us, he was scared, heck I was too. I just didn't know him too well to know what we could talk about. I understand that he couldn't talk about what happened to the other day, with no one else, since I was the only one who was there with him. Sure I could call Hannes, but it would be too suspicious since we weren't talking buddies, not normally, I didn't call him, and he didn't call me. And sure there was Kiriko, but she would just take it as an alert of some kind and worry in vain, at the worst case she would come here and I would be stuck with her, which wasn't good for me, just trust me on this.

"Have a good weekend!" I said before leaving the dressing room, I heard their laughter, I guess they thought I was out of my mind, talking to them but whatever, I didn't mean to say anything, it just came out. Well at least they had a fun time with it.  
"You were fast." Percy stood there in the hallway, he grinned at me making my heart beat like mad.  
"So were you." I noted, for he too was all dressed up, he wore dark blue ski jacket with a pair of grey jeans and running shoes. It wasn't even winter, why would he wear a ski jacket? Not that he didn't look good in it, which he did. He was very handsome, blue seemed to be his color, it went well with his black hair and of course dark blue eyes. _I shouldn't be even thinking of this_, I felt like a moron.  
"It's just that you girls usually dress up pretty slowly." He smirked again.  
"They do." I said while pointing at the direction of the girl's dressing room. "I just hurried away."  
"Are they being mean to you?" Percy asked.  
"Kind of." I admitted. "But I won't mind. Why do you ask?"  
"It's just they have a habit of bullying new comers." He explained. "Or so I have heard."  
"And here I thought it was just me." I sighed. "How about your side?"  
"My side of what?" Percy asked.  
"Do the guys tend to bully each other?" I specified.  
"Not so much." Percy laughed. "Sure we do play pranks at each other at times, but nothing too serious."  
"Lucky you." I sighed.  
"Hey, if it's that bad, you can always tell about it to someone." Percy tried to comfort me.  
"Nah, that's not in my nature." I said. "It's not like this hasn't happened before, I'll deal with it." Or mostly, I just ignore it.

"Why are you standing here?" I asked. "Are you waiting for somebody?"  
"It's kind of dark in there." He pointed out.  
"Don't tell me you're scared of the dark." I sighed, that came out ruder than a funny way I meant it to come.  
"It's not that." Percy smiled. "I just thought you would like to have a ride." As we talked we had begun to walk towards the hallway and the exit, it would've been stupid of us to stand outside the girls dressing room, when someone would try to get out we would just stand in the way, besides I didn't want to be the reason of anymore talking or laughing anymore, I knew I looked stupid as hell when I blushed so I take that must have been the reason of the farce going on in the dressing room, or maybe it was just me. Who the hell knows?  
"No, I have to take my dog home." I answered. Surely Percy wouldn't want to have dog hairs all over his car – besides Dad would roast me alive if I would accept to take a drive with a guy I barely knew.  
"I see." He answered as we entered to the hallway, Storm was lying on the floor next to the door, but as soon as she saw me she got on her paws and waved her tail.  
"So you're the one who always brings the dog in." Percy noted.  
"I can't just leave her or them outside, it's cold out there." I defended myself.  
"Them?" Percy asked.  
"I have three dogs." I told him. "I don't walk them on the same time, it would only be a catastrophe if I did."  
"Are they like huge?" Percy asked.  
"They are all around this big." I said as I took the leash on my hand. "But the two of them don't get along very well."

Percy opened the door for me, while continuing talking.  
"So, have you decided who you're going to audition for?"  
"None." I sighed. "I have too much going on with the school already."  
"I don't think that's an option." Percy smiled. "It's the thing with the company, _everyone_ has to do some role."  
"Or you get kicked out?" I asked.  
Percy shrugged his shoulders. "I think you should give it a try at least." I liked dancing, I guess it was pretty clear, but last winter I did a part in Giselle, of course it wasn't anything big, we needed to cut few roles away, since we didn't have as many dancers as the ballet needed, I don't know why to bother at the first place, our group was small you can probably guess how much work it takes to have a simple ballet done, it was just horrible so no more of those things for me. I don't mind doing a hard job, but working big time wasn't pleasant, actually now that I think of it, at least these girls were all honest and showed clearly that they disliked me for whatever stupid reason.  
"Be brave Marie." Percy said then, he put his hand on my head and ruffled my hair. "I know you got what it takes, you shouldn't be shy about it." His smile was something that could melt even the coldest heart out there – no matter how cliché this sounded, I really felt like melting inside, which I know sounds stupid and lame, and at the same time I felt stupid thinking about this.  
"Well, I'll be on my way now." Percy said, still smiling at me. "I'll see you on Monday, right?"  
"S-Sure." I stuttered.

I stood there for a while, just looking as he went to his car – old grey Toyota, and drove away. Mom, I mean Storm whined at me, I guess she was getting cold.  
"I know, I'm being idiotic." I sighed as I looked at her dog face. "You have never seen me like this, right?"  
Mom barked as a reply.  
"Maybe we should just get home and stop standing here like two brainless idiots." I sighed. "Let's go."

It was rather silent night, at least when I start to compare it to my recent nights, New York will always be one noisy city, I don't think I'll never get used to it, but at least there didn't seem to be anything dangerous going on, I was sure there would be, if I were to seek a danger, which I wasn't going to do. I wanted to enjoy the quiet night. I stopped walking and looked at the dark alley I often used as a short cut, but today I didn't want to use any shortcuts. I might as well take the longer way. Then I heard a noise – yes, what a cliché! It seemed to come from the new waste paper bin they had put in the alley after the last one got broken. Mom was a curious dog, she always wanted to stop walking and sniff new places, unlike two other dogs at home. So you can guess what she did, she went to the alley, pulling me along. I sighed, _very well then.  
_She went straight to the new bin, I thought she wanted to check it out, but then I saw something moving there in the bin. Mom squeaked and then she jumped against the bin, putting her front paws on the border of the bin.  
"Come on, Storm." I said impatiently. "No matter how cute it is, we can't take it home with us." Then she started licking that someone's cheek. _Oh, come on!_ I just wanted to go home, was that too much to be asked?  
Then I just walked nearer to her, it was dark and the light was really poor, there was one streetlight but it was on the other side of the street. But when I finally saw who she liked so much, I rolled my eyes and sighed as silently as possible.  
"I take it back, he's not cute at all."  
"Can you move this thing of yours?" Greenie said annoyed. I didn't know what he was doing sitting there in the bin, but he didn't look too happy, in fact he was like another sign of storm.  
"Aww, why bother?" I said dryly. "It suits you."  
"Just get this furry thing of yours out of my way!" He growled at me.  
"Okay, okay." I said and raised my right hand above my face, for a sign of peace then I pulled the dog away, since it was clear she wasn't wanted.  
"Come on, Storm." I said to her gently. "Let's go home."

Before we went, I looked behind my shoulder, looking at the human sized turtle with red bandana around his face – or more like his eyes, expect there were two holes in it, so he could see what was before him. I saw how he get out of the bin and then he growled and kicked an empty soda can that lied on the ground. _Boy, someone sure seemed grumpy_. It wasn't wise to stay here, because every single time I were to cross paths with him, someone or something would usually come and try to kill the both of us. Suddenly Mom… I mean Storm growled – which she didn't do often anymore, she looked what was before us, ears flattened. I stared at it for a moment, at first I didn't see a thing, but I heard a noise, a creepy noise that haunted me when I first met the green guy. Then I saw the red glowing eyes glowing in the dark. It came ford so I could see the whole thing, it was quick and as always it didn't waste any time, it draw it's weapon – a _katana_, of course, tried to slash me with it. Somehow I managed to dodge it by stepping back meanwhile Mom pulled her leach so strongly I almost fell down.  
"Seriously, what the fuck gives?"  
"Move!" Angry voice shouted from behind me, and jumped over me growling angrily.  
"With pleasure." I mumbled. There was no way I would stay between him and his buddy, besides it was getting late anyway. But then I got the awesome idea of doing little shopping.

"Just wait here." I told Mom. "I go and get disinfectant." Since we walked pass the pharmacy I might as well get a bottle of the stuff meant for cleaning scratches. I left Mom waiting outside as I went. I was pretty sure I would end up getting new scratches, I almost always ended up having bruises or something when I would meet the green guy, I might as well get ready for it.  
"You might want to get that checked up." The woman who served me on the cash register said, I knew she meant the deep wound I got yesterday.  
"Yeah, I've been meaning to do that." I lied.

"Let's get back home." I told the dog after getting out of the store. I started feeling bit tired, I guess I was in need of weekend more than I realized it myself. Our homecoming trip went rather smoothly, no new dangers, Mom didn't even stop to sniff the corners, I guess she understood I wasn't in mood of waiting, I just wanted to get home. Home went nowhere, it stood there where I had left it in the morning.  
Normally I would yell my usual Finnish greeting as I stepped over the doorstep, but today I wasn't feeling up for it, besides I knew I would have a welcoming committee waiting for me, just like every day when I got back from the school. It was mainly Roy that greeted me by trying to jump on me and trying to lick my face, Thorin mainly stayed on the background until Roy was either finished greeting me, or I would have pushed him a side, then he came to me, slowly and wanted some attention, he didn't jump on me, I guess he wanted me to know he was more grown up in that matter, as if I haven't noticed.

"Roy, get freaking off of me!" I yelled at the white fur ball, but I wasn't mad at him, what was the point, he didn't mean to get on my nerves or anything.  
"All right..." I mumbled and stroked his fur. "Happy now?"  
Of course he wasn't happy, until he had a change to lick my face, then he removed himself off of my face and finally allowed me to get back on my feet. As always Thorin would come to greet me after the one dog which he considered as some kind of ADHD dog would remove himself from his way. Thorin took one step closer but then he suddenly turned his head towards the gate of our yard, I could hear a small growl coming from his mouth as he spread to running towards whatever it was he heard. He left the yard in hurry leaving the rest of us standing there.  
"Not again!" I growled. "Not those damn aliens again!" Then I sighed, I guess this was one of those nights I couldn't have taken it easy. I ran after the dog, of course Roy followed me, as he always did, so ready for a new adventure. God knows where Thorin had run off to, in this darkness we would never find him and if we did, there was no way he would leave before the thing that had distracted him would either be gone or dead. However this time he hadn't gone far, in fact he was just around the corner and kept growling at the big thorn bush that stood there. At first I didn't see to what he did growl at but then I heard the same angry voice talking:  
"Get this rabid mut of yours away!" I rolled my eyes. It was that guy again. For a moment I was tempted to let Thorin to growl at him bit more but I couldn't be that mean and also I was tired the one thing I wanted to do was just to get home and take it easy for the rest of the night. I stepped beside my dog and stroked his neck.  
"It's okay." I said calmly. "I don't think he is here to rob our house or anything. And if he is, then you can have a piece of him."  
"Hey!" The green guy yelled, annoyed this time. He sure didn't like the deal but it was fine with Thorin and he stopped growling. It was silent for a moment, then Roy had to show everyone that he was here too and started barking loudly.  
"Roy, shut up!" I yelled at him, I was getting tired of this, he had to always mimic what Thorin did and try to do it better, this time he didn't hear me or just ignored me. But like always, Thorin showed which one of them was in the higher position. He started growling and let out a loud bark to silence the younger dog. It worked every time, Thorin had much louder and bit threatening voice that seemed to scare almost every dog around, it worked perfectly for Roy, surprised or scared – or both he took few quick steps back his tail between his legs and his gaze pressed down.  
"Thanks." I smiled at Thorin, he turned his head on me and stared at me.

"Are you hurt?" I asked from the turtle who struggled to get back on his feet.  
"I'm fine." He said sounding annoyed that some had dared to ask if he was fine_. What a typical boy...  
_"There's no broken bones is there?" I asked carefully.  
"I don't think so." He answered toughly. Then Thorin started to do a strange noise, or his mouth did, to someone who hadn't heard a dog laughing – if that's even a right term for it, would find it weird.  
"What's with him?" He asked.  
"Oh. I think he is laughing." I told him.  
"For what?" The turtle asked and started to sound angry once again. I looked at him, because I couldn't find anything else that would've amused my dog.  
"This is just great!" He yelled frustrated.  
"Don't take it seriously, he is just a dog." I tried to comfort him. Then he made this noise that sounded to me like he had been physically hurt somehow.  
"Are you sure, you are alright?" I asked. "That bush has some nasty thorns in it."  
"Tell me about it." Was the answer.  
"Do you want me to take a look?" I asked.  
"Thanks, but that's not necessary." He said with this who cares-tone.  
"Are sure?" I asked. "Because if you don't get them out they start to rot under your skin and that can be rather painful."

That changed his mind. He agreed to let me check how many of thorns he had attached to his skin, and since it was dark I couldn't see a thing in this darkness he had no choice but to come over to my place.  
"Wait here." I said before leaving him in my room. "And don't touch a thing." He didn't say a thing and refused to look into my face for some reason. Maybe I had so ugly face he didn't want to see it or something. I went into the bathroom to look for pincers so I could remove few of those thorns. Thorin followed me everywhere I went, Mom had stayed in my room, since it was the place she mostly slept in.  
"You aren't going to use those thing are you?" Green guy asked as he saw the pincers as I returned to my room.  
"Oh, don't be a baby. You won't feel a thing." I told him with a smile. "Besides you don't want to go home looking like a pincushion, do you?"  
He didn't say anything, but I took it he agreed with me.  
"So how did you end up in the bush anyway?" I asked as I started removing the thorns from his legs.  
"I was uh... Climbing on the tree near it and the branch snapped." He said, sounding as it meant nothing.  
_There, one down and many more to go._  
"So what were you doing in these parts?" I asked. "Last time I saw you, you were fighting that psycho robot thing. It didn't run away did it? Is it here lurking in somewhere?" The thought of s robot with a Japanese sword waiting in some dark corner to attack and sting me with its weapon scared me, so I stopped taking the fifth thorn from his left leg. I looked around me as I was waiting to be attacked by something, it seemed to some-what amuse him.  
"Relax, I took care of It."  
"Then why are you here?" I asked. "Why aren't you at home? You do have a home right?" Yay, eighteen thorns removed from the left leg, I bet there was as many in his right one.  
"I wanted to fight some more of them." He said distantly.  
"Why?" I asked.  
"_Because_." Was his reply. "They seem to really like attacking and stalking you so I thought..."  
"Because I've been a trouble magnet ever since I moved to New York." I ended his sentence. Geez, I never would've imagined that in my next school year my peaceful life had turned into this.  
"But why are you fighting?" I asked.  
"I just am. I guess I like it." He said.  
"Especially when you're angry?" I guessed. He reminded me of Hannes, who was pretty much always angry and I think that's why he'd always start fights.  
He was silent for a moment but then he agreed. "Yeah. Ouch!"  
"Sorry." I apologized. "This one is deeper than the others."

"Tell me something, does it help with the anger?" I asked.  
"Sometimes. But mostly it makes everything worse." He said sounding distant again. "Someone I know has told me many times I should control my anger, but so far it's not helping."  
"I get it." I said calmly. There, ten of these guys removed from his right leg. He still had few on his arms so I stood up and sat next to him on my bed, he took a little bit distant from me, which was fine with me as long as I could still do my job.  
"But aren't you angry like always?" I realized how stupid and insulting question it was so I corrected it a bit. "At least every time I've met you, you've been kind of angry."  
"I know." He sighed. "I just seem to bump into you every time I'm angry."  
"Is that like a bad karma or something?" I asked.  
"Nah. It's just every time I lose my temper my family members start mentioning how bad my temper is and sometimes I've been made fun of because of it."  
This started to feel familiar. I could hear my mentor's words on my ears, telling me I shouldn't let my feelings to have the best of me, meaning I shouldn't be feeling what I did feel, that I should just be.. I don't know, emotionless?  
"I understand." That phrase really seemed to get under his skin, because suddenly he stood up and gazed at me with his green eyes filled with anger.  
"No you don't. You just say you do, just like they do! But they don't know, no one does! They just say they do because they are trying to sympathize with me and I hate it!"  
I stood up too. "Oh yeah? What are they doing? Asking you to forget what you are feeling or just not to feel it at all? Don't tell me they want you to be this freaking emotionless rag doll!" I didn't mean to yell, but I thought being as angry as he was now, silently speaking wouldn't do any good, he would just yell back at me as he did:  
"How would you even have a slightest of clue what it's like, huh? You don't have a family that makes you to lose it."  
"Sit down." I demanded. But he didn't, he looked at me, challenging me to lose it. He may have thought it would be amusing for him to see someone else to lose it for a while.  
"Oh, I don't have a family?! Yes, I don't have any siblings and my dad is always making excuses for not being around and my mentor presents herself as a caring lady but tells me I shouldn't get angry at her or everybody, as if I shouldn't have feelings at all!"  
He had opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, he just stared at me, and I stared back at him angrily. Then I gasped and sighed, sat back down and so did he, sighing.  
"That felt good." I sighed. He was silent, so I continued what I had been doing a moment ago. He was silent for what seemed to be long time.  
"It's as you said." He said silently. "Sometimes I feel like they don't want me to feel what I'm feeling and it makes me even angrier."  
"I know." I said. "Trust me, I really do. And it's not right, no one shouldn't be telling you or me what to feel."  
"Yeah." He said, sounding calmer than ever.

"Do you go looking for a trouble when they tell you about...? You know what." I asked.  
"At least it takes my mind off of things." He replied. "Fighting is one thing I know how to do so..."  
"It's like dancing for me." I smiled. "Whenever I'm angry, sad or happy I go to the ballet studio."  
"Does it help?" He asked in his turn.  
"Yes." I answered. "It takes everything away." And I removed the last thorn.  
"Well, I better go." He said. "It's getting late, they'll be wondering where I am."  
I nodded. I walked him to the door and watched as he went to his way. On the gate of our yard he turned around to look at me. I tried to give him this encouraging smile, but I probably ended up looking like a moron, well maybe it was so dark he didn't see my face. I closed the door behind me and gazed at Thorin who had followed me to see the visitor off – or to see that he truly went away. I sighed.  
"I hope the hell didn't freeze over just because I lost my temper. That's what Kiriko warns me about."  
Thorin squeaked as a reply. I didn't understand what he was saying, probably he was trying to give me some sympathy or something. I went to the living room, Thorin stopped following me at the door, because he knew I went looking for Roy.  
"Roy?" I called his name. It was dark so I put the lights on. The room seemed empty expect for the corner where the couch lied, behind it seemed to be a part of something white and furry. I smirked, Roy was never hard to find.  
I went in front of the corner he had hidden himself and kneeled down.  
"Hey, there Roy." I said and I was replied by unhappy whining.  
"It's alright." I said to him as gently as I could. "I'm not mad at you or anything. Come out. Let's watch some TV." But he remained behind the couch, but I knew he would come around when I would silently sit on the couch and wait for him to come out. Which he did, he came out slowly and walked in front of me his eyes staring at the carpet on the floor.  
"That's my boy." I smiled and stroked his head. "Come here." I tapped the couch as I always did whenever I wanted him to come up. He whined once again before jumping on the couch and laying himself beside me. I pressed my cheek against his fur, that didn't last very long until Roy lifted his head and gave me a wet dog's kiss on the cheek.  
"I love you too." I said. Tomorrow after the morning practice on the ballet studio, I would do something with my didn't friends and I would drag this furry guy along, I know what it is we would do but I do hope it's something that doesn't include psycho killer robots or aliens.


	9. Chapter 7 - Doppelganger on the street

**A/N:** Yay, it's finally done! I've been working on this chapter since March. I don't say it was hard one to be written, I started with Marie's point of view as usual, but it ended up being written with Oliver's point of view. I don't blame you for not remembering who he is, he made appearance like once, in chapter two, he was Marie's classmate the Kraang tried to kidnap. Yeah, no working on with Marie and Raph situation this time, I just wanted Marie to be doing something with her friends. Next chapter continues Raph/Marie storyline. In this chapter we learn about both Oliver's and Marie's backgrounds and we have a cameo by my favorite character in TMNT who's not a turtle.

Besides writing this I've been writing on another TMNT story which is again about one of my OC's. This OC is actually going to be in Marie's story just not yet. Oh and I'm also planning on third story – these all three stories are connected, I call them sister stories. One of the OC's I'm using on the third one makes a cameo appearance in this chapter as well.

I hope this chapter doesn't bore you to dead or that Oliver's point of view doesn't do that or seem too angsty.

**Update:** Corrected ton of typos.

* * *

Chapter 7 – Doppelganger on the street

Life sucks and then you die. At least my dad hopes so, or I think he does. When me and my sis moved to our uncle's, he swore our dad would stay away from us, but if this was his second visit within short time, I don't think my uncle swearing to keep him out of our lives worked at all. And I'm not liking this one bit because it would always end up in the same situation. Expect for today, because this time I'm hiding in my room before I could be pushed against the wall or to be hit on my face. But they had their loud fight anyway. I sat in front of my door, listening to it, all those insults, mainly thrown for my uncle who was taking care of me, a freak. I had heard it before, all those accusations, as if it was my fault mom got sick and died soon after. Or how I was an alien child who had no place among his family, soon it would come to it where he would accuse me for not being his son. Wise guy would've left, but I stayed. Where would I go? There was no place for me to go to.

They say guys don't cry, I don't know about the rest, but I do. I hate hearing grownups fighting, especially when I'm the reason why they are doing so. I missed my mom, lot of things have been happening lately, new school, new city, new country and those things at school in the other day. And then there was Marie. And Gargie too, but mainly Marie. She's someone I can't figure out, she's kind, but she's feisty, she knows how to handle things, but sometimes, she speaks in riddles I don't get. But at least when she's around I don't have to think about mom, or dad or all those accusations. She's a lot of fun to be around with. We should meet today, go to sleep over at Gargie's place. It was very the first time I've been invited to a friend's house while living in New York. But I wasn't feeling like I wanted to go, I mean what would they say if I kept moping all evening?

I doubt they never notice if I don't show up. I heard the doorbell ringing.  
"What?" My dad yelled after him probably opening the door. He would try to scare whoever was on the door.  
"Who the fuck are you?" The voice belonged to Marie, and she didn't sound scared, not one bit. I doubt she never was scared.  
I heard the dog bark.  
"We aren't buying anything!" My dad raged.  
She coughed. "Well, I'm not selling anything, but if I was I would sell you some pastilles."  
No good, she'll only get him mad by acting like that.  
"Trying to be funny?" I could imagine my dad spitting on her face while yelling at her. Maybe he'd be so mad he would hit her, what could I do? That man just froze me up, I couldn't do anything while he was around, and I couldn't say anything. I know, I know. Pitiful.  
"Erik, what is going on here?" My uncle asked. His voice sounded annoyed, but it changed into pleasant – his most regular one while he noticed who was on the door.  
"It's so good to see you, Marie."  
_Come on Oliver, stand up, go to the door_, half of me was thinking but that cowardly half was saying Marie doesn't want to – or need to see you like this. If she does, she'll just think you're a wimp! Needless to say the cowardly Oliver won.

I heard a knock on my door, it caused me to startle because I didn't expect Marie to be coming in my room but instead my uncle calling me. I stood up quickly and hit my head on the door handle, of course I stumbled on something and fell on my face. I was just like that, I was so clumsy that my sis sometimes teased me if I were to grow long hair no one would notice I was a guy, because according to her I was girlish clumsy and shy, I guess all the guys should be this brave macho type to be good enough of guy.  
The door opened and Marie peeked inside the room, her eyes looked at me bit confused.  
"What are you doing?" She asked slowly.  
"Nothing!" I squeaked for reply. "I-I didn't know you were coming just yet..."  
I was going to say I haven't started packing yet, but Marie's dog, big hairy white one wanted to eat me. It jumped on me – no, actually it just walked on me, sat there and started to lick my face.  
"Roy, stop it." Marie said firmly. "I don't think you're making Oliver very comfortable here." She giggled, probably because I looked funny to her. The dog however returned to her.  
"Do you mind if I come in?" She asked smirking at me because she was pretty much inside of my room already, at least half of her – upper half was.  
"Sure." I stuttered. Marie stepped inside my room, today she looked bit different than usual. I looked at her for a moment, was it her hair, had she done something to her hair? No, that wasn't it. It took a moment for me to realize what it was, I had never seen Marie outside of school, where she wore a school uniform. Now she wore baggy black pants and white jumper with black stripes that were made of furry material.  
"What?" She asked, still smirking.  
"It's just... You look different." I stuttered.  
Her eyebrow rose. "Well did you expect me to wear a school uniform during my free hours?"  
"N-No, actually I've never thought of it..." I stuttered.  
"Nah, that's fine." She smiled at me. "Just messing with you a bit." And it worked. Of course she couldn't have known how well, Marie always did the trick, whenever I had these things on my mind, Marie would talk or do something random, and they would wash away for good – for a while.

"Are you alright?" She asked, I could hear a tone of concern from her voice. Well I couldn't blame her, after all she saw my dad and witnessed what he was like most of the time.  
"Yeah." I said, I turned my back on her, starting to pack my things. I couldn't talk about it, not to anyone. Even thinking about talking about it, about him raised a piece of something I couldn't seem to swallow in my throat. I was afraid of breaking into tears in front of someone I liked, she would just think I'm a stupid weak fool.  
"You are lying." She said calmly. I turned around to see her, she was smiling at me. It wasn't a happy smile, she smiled but only with her mouth, her eyes stared at me strangely. I had seen this look only few times, it was a distant gaze, as if she would see something the rest of us couldn't. But there was something else... Was it sympathy? For what? She didn't really know me and even if she did she couldn't have suffered the same fate in the way I did. She was too tough, too cheerful for that. If there was something wrong with her life it would show somehow.

"It's that garbage man guarding the vestibule?" She said, again calmly.  
"It's... Why are you calling him a garbage man?" I asked confused.  
"He smelled like he had emptied a liquor store or something." Marie stated. "That was located in garbage bin."  
I smiled forcefully. Marie probably was trying to cheer me up by making a joke.  
"Look, it's not your business or any..." I started.  
"I'm not asking you to tell me." Marie said. "Let me do that for you."  
So I waited.  
"Your dad doesn't seem like a nice person, he seems like an average drunk to me." Marie talked while looking at me. "He has a bad temper, and I mean really bad. Considering that cut or bruise you had the other day when – you remember don't you?"  
How could I forget? It was probably most frightening day of my life and one I still didn't know what to think of. That day those creatures chased after me, I didn't know why, I just knew they wanted me. Marie tried to protect me and they tried to shot her dead, that's pretty clear isn't it? And my dad had said day before that, that maybe something would come and get me. Those things scared me as much as much my dad's words did.

"Look it might have been an accident. Maybe you just didn't get out of the way too fast or something." Marie said, now seriously.  
I looked at her, amazed did she come up with that by herself? That's pretty much what had happened.  
"But as I said, you don't have to tell me." She was back with her regular cheerful voice. I sat on my bed and Marie's dog took that as an invitation and it jumped on my bed next to me, and started to lick my face. I didn't find it nice at all, I tried to push it away, but as hard as I tried it just got more excited. However Marie pulled it easily away and sat next to me.  
"Sorry, Roy is kind of puppy." She said. "But he means well."  
"He's been like that ever since my mom..." I still couldn't say it aloud. When she died, even though it was three years since it happened.  
Marie looked at the bookshelf on top of it I had two framed photos. One was taken in front of the grill, there was me and Gargie Marie was standing between us holding her hands on our shoulders. Another one had me and my sister in it with our mom. I was lot younger in that photo, but mom was as I remember her, lively, blonde haired woman with a peachy skin.  
"She looks like you." Marie noted.  
I was going to reply something like "I guess" but she never heard it because my uncle probably told dad to leave and he exploded. Marie looked at the door.  
"Do you want to go somewhere else?" She asked.  
"Well..." I shivered at the thought of leaving my room and facing my dad, when he was that angry who knew what he would do to me.  
"Don't worry, I'll protect you." Marie said.  
"But Marie he's a grown man..." I argued against her. "He'd hurt you if you got under his skin." But Marie just rolled her eyes.  
"Your uncle is there, is he not?"  
"He is but..." I mumbled. I couldn't just say I was scared, she would think I was a coward which I guess I was but she didn't need to know that.  
"You're scared." She said. "I get it, but you can't hide here forever, besides we have this sharp teethed dog if he tries something."  
I looked at Marie's dog, who was now sitting or lying beside her and licking her face. He didn't seem at least bit threatening.  
"Do you really want to stay here?" Marie asked.  
"Well no but..." I started but then she grabbed my wrist, it wasn't that firm kind of grab, just loose one.  
"We are going, Oliver." She said with a simple tone. "Grab your bag."  
"Is Gargie expecting us this early?" I asked.  
"We are not going to Gargie's just yet." Marie said. "I'm ordering you a burger."

I felt like there was nothing I could do to hide in this room, I mean, I don't think Marie would've listened to me even if I tried to tell her we shouldn't. Marie put the leash she was walking her dog with on her right hand while she walked me with her left hand.  
My dad was still quarreling with my uncle but as we came to the picture they stopped. Dad looked at me with cold, hateful eyes, his lips went up for a glib smile. He turned his gaze to Marie.  
"Has our little Oliver gotten himself a girlfriend?" He meant to sound nice but both of us could hear it was just pretended. "I wouldn't get too attached to a little creep, sweet heart."  
"What is that supposed to mean?" Marie asked slightly annoyed.  
"Oh nothing." Dad continued sounding gleeful. "He won't be here much longer." That was when Marie let go of my wrist, she went straight to my dad, her eyes narrowed, her lips pursed down, she looked slightly scary when she went and literally stepped on his toes. For a moment it looked like she hasn't thought what she should say, so she just growled:  
"Don't fucking call me sweet heart!" Her dog growled at him, as a warning, I bet it understood what he was about to do. You see being a drunk with anger management issues, he didn't like someone – especially if that someone was a teenager, telling him what he should or shouldn't do. I saw him raising his hand, and Marie's eyes suddenly toughen as if she was ready to kick him to the ground, but nothing happened all thanks to my uncle.  
He had grabbed my dad's wrist before he could hit her.  
"Erik, stop it!" My uncle yelled.  
Marie's dog barked at him, I bet it wanted to jump on the man and bite the crap out of him. But Marie stepped back, slowly, without turning her back on them.  
"It was nice seeing you, Marie!" My uncle yelled as the both of left the apartment.  
"Yeah, I hope that garbage man stays out next time!" Marie yelled back. I heard my dad starting to yell something, I care not to repeat.

"What was that about?" I asked nervously.  
"Well, I don't like to be called sweet heart." Marie replied as we walked away from the block I lived with my weird family.  
"I get that, but you were acting like he was going to stab you in the back or something." I said.  
"Well, I've been taught it's dangerous to turn your back to the person who attacked you." Marie said. "I mean, he was going to slap me."  
"He's like that." I sighed. "You shouldn't have pissed him."  
"Sorry, I guess I'm that kind of person." Marie smirked. "I can never shut my mouth, that's what they say."  
"Who?" I asked.  
"My dad and Kiriko." Marie answered still grinning. "I never believed them, but I guess they are right."  
"Who's Kiriko?" I asked, because I didn't know what I could say on Marie's behavior, I didn't know her that well so I could be a judging her behavior.  
"She's kind of baby-sitter of me." Marie said. "Not my mom, obviously but I guess she's close to being one."  
"Your dad's spouse?" I asked.  
"Hell, no." Marie started giggling. "They can barely stand being in the same room with each other."

As I suspected Marie took me to Rawst the grill, it was her favorite place to eat. She claimed they had the best bacon-cheese burgers in New York. But I bet Marie went there because the place itself wasn't huge, it was more of a cozy type of place. Large man with tan skin and jet black hair greeted her behind the counter.  
"Did you come to grab a burger again, Marie?"  
"Yup." Marie answered. Then the man turned his head to look at the kid eating on the table nearest to the counter.  
"Come on Dahlia, eating vegetables won't kill you."  
"Aww, Dad!" Girl sighed. "Do I have to?"  
"They have that argument pretty much every day." Marie whispered to me as I tried to decide what to eat, to be honest I wasn't even hungry, but I guess this was Marie's way to show her support or whatever it was.  
"I just have the same as you." I said.  
"Okay!" Marie said, happily. "We have two bacon-cheese burgers, please."  
I was going to buy my own, but as soon I took out my wallet she looked at me for long while, as if I had done something unbelievable.  
"I got this." She said.  
"But..." I started to protest.  
"Just buy me a burger sometime I really need one." She smiled, and I felt something melting inside, it always happened when she smiled directly at me.

We sat on the back, I found myself watching the brown haired kid who didn't want to eat her vegetables, because I couldn't think of anything to say. She had a turtle sitting on her shoulder. It jumped on her plate and took a bite of a small round tomato. However tomato didn't want to be eaten so it rolled away from the turtle. It continued doing so every time that tiny turtle would try to have a bite from it.  
I laughed a bit.  
"She tries to have her turtle eating the vegetables every time." Marie grinned.  
"That was such a carefree time, wasn't it?" I asked. "Childhood."  
"I guess it was." Marie said distantly. "Now everything is keeping us busy, school, free time activities."  
"And family." I added.  
"Say, has he always been like that?" Marie asked.  
"No." I sighed. "It started when my mom got sick and died only few weeks later."  
Marie looked at me for a moment, I guess she was figuring out what to say.  
"Was it something like cancer or..."  
"We don't know what it was." I sighed again. "First it seemed to be just an ordinary cold, with high fever, after a week she was so sick she couldn't stand up anymore, then she just..."  
Marie nodded, then she smiled, reached her hand out for me, and pressed her hand against mine.  
"I'm sorry, I don't know what that is like." She said with a gentle voice I had never heard from her mouth. "My mom died before I was even old enough to remember her."  
"Oh..." I said awkwardly. "I'm so..."  
"Sorry?" Marie asked sounding amused. "I guess that's ok, it just feels weird to hear it. I mean I don't really know who to be sorry for, I don't even know what she looked like."  
"Don't you have any pictures?" I asked.  
"No." Marie said as if it was as simple as that.  
"Well, can't your dad tell you?" I asked.  
Marie snorted. "No. I guess Kiriko could tell me something, but she doesn't like talking about it. We only speak of my mom when something bad has happened. She'd just grow worried if I were to ask."  
"She's that type of person?" I guessed.  
"Yup. And she's awfully bossy too." Marie said.

We got our burgers delivered to us and we started to eat. I asked Marie about her hobby, since she seemed to be really into it. I mean she was practically living in that ballet studio. She told me she had been dancing for ten years, and she loved it. Then she asked about my hobbies, I didn't have any, school was enough for me.  
"So you're lazy kind of guy?" Marie asked, grinning.  
"Yup." I answered. "Sometimes I go watch my uncle coaching some our hockey team, you know our school's own hockey team."  
"Our school has their own hockey team?" Marie asked, surprised. "I've only seen Hannes training with the high school team."  
"They do that sometimes." I told her. "My uncle has told me."  
"I haven't been interested at after school activities." Marie said. "I have too much going on already, with the ballet and trying to fit in this freaking town... City."  
"I know what you mean." I said. "I hate this town! It's filled with nasty things like..."  
Shiver went down to my spine.  
"I know." Marie said silently, rubbing her right hand. "I wonder what those things are anyway..."  
"I don't want to know." I said quickly. "All I know that they tried to grab me and that they scare me like hell."  
Marie looked thoughtful for a while.  
"Marie, tell me you aren't going to find out." I said.  
"What?" She asked.  
"About those things, it's dangerous!" I tried to warn her.  
"No. I was thinking what your dad said." Marie said.  
"Yeah." Another shiver went down to my spine. "He's being saying that ever since I moved here."  
"Maybe he knows something." Marie suggested. I couldn't believe that he would, I mean he was a drunk, he could mean anything, that I would be hit by a car, mugged or something. But the feeling I had, told me otherwise, maybe he knew something.  
"He's a drunk you know." I said doubtfully. "It doesn't mean he knows anything."  
"You don't really believe that, do you?" Marie asked. "I remember what you said on that day, you said he'd knew they would come for you."

"Dahlia, those aren't for your turtle." My attention got distracted from the subject.  
"But dad, I don't like them, Dio does!" That kid said. "He might as well eat them!"  
Marie turned her gaze towards the table where that kid sat and smiled, for a moment we sat there, eating, quietly, if that was even possible, I just felt like it was quiet.  
"Hey, Oliver." Marie said suddenly.  
"Huh?"  
"I'm sorry, I know it isn't easy for you. I just would like to know why those creeps are after you." She said slowly.  
"I guess that's natural." I said silently. "I just don't feel like doing it. I..."  
"You're scared, aren't you?" She spoke the words I couldn't. "I am too."  
"Why? It's not you they wanted." I told her. "Remember?"  
"I guess you're right." Marie sighed.

Apart from that conversation we had fun time together, Marie took me to the park, where we would play with her dog, Roy. He was a silly dog, always finding stuff some random Joe had dropped and bringing it to us. At one point he found a stick from the ground and we ended up throwing the stick for him.  
"Let's just hope he doesn't jump on random people." Marie laughed.  
"Does he do that a lot?" I asked.  
"Yup. He also loves mud." Marie grinned. "It's such a pain try to wash it though. That dog just doesn't like to stay still."  
When we were talking, Marie's words made perfect sense, since her dog had just run away while we didn't pay attention.  
"For fuck's sake." Marie sighed. She did curse a lot. "Roy!"  
We spent a good while looking for him, asking around, but no one didn't seem to notice rather big dog with long white fur. I think a dog like that would stand out, but maybe these American people didn't care for a lost pet, or pay much attention to these things.  
Marie went ahead to look, she said Roy enjoyed hiding, so he probably was doing it right now. I felt stupid just standing there, I didn't want to annoy people asking about the dog, I felt nervous talking to people I didn't know.

Then I heard Marie screaming. I got bit scared, what if it was those creeps Marie had ran into? But as I got there I found Marie lying on the ground, with Roy licking her face.  
"I told you so." Marie sighed. I was about to reply:  
"So you did." But the dog turned his head around and started to bark very loudly. It looked as he was waiting for someone to come out from hiding. I looked at the direction the dog did and I thought I saw something standing there and looking at us. No, not us, at Marie. I looked at the figure, it didn't look like one of those robots – from what I could see, it wasn't as tall as those robot men were. I blinked my eyes and what I thought I saw being there, standing with the trees was gone.  
"Roy, shut it!" Marie yelled at the dog as she pushed him away, so she could stand up. Roy kept staring at the trees and then at Marie anxiously while barking. Marie put the leash back to his collar and sighed.  
"What's wrong with you, huh?"  
The dog squeaked at her.  
"Anyway, I think we should go." Marie told me. "Hello, Oliver?"  
"What?" I asked quickly, noticing myself staring at the trees.  
"What, looking for Slender man are you?" Marie asked, this time she sounded sarcastic.  
"N-No, of course not!" I denied. "Just lost in my thoughts, you know."  
"We should go. G is waiting for us at the DVD rental shop, you know." Marie pointed out.

"You guys are late!" Gargie pointed out when we saw him standing in front of the store. Roy tried to jump on him, but Gargie avoided it by stepping far enough from him. "Sorry not today, fur ball!" He laughed.  
"Roy decided to run away when we were playing." I said.  
"And then Oliver looked for old Slendy."  
"Really?" Gargie sounded interested. "Did you find anything?"  
"N-No." I blushed.  
"So what kind of movies you want to watch tonight?" Marie asked as she left Roy in front of the store.  
"Alien movies?" Gargie suggested. "Anyone?"  
I guess he saw my awkward face.  
"Geez, Gargie." Marie sighed as we entered the store. "If you wanted some aliens you could've asked me to bring Aunt Mina's old tapes."  
"Besides, we always watch alien films." She added moments later.  
"Okay." Gargie agreed. "Anyone for pirate films?"  
"Sounds good." I said. I really didn't care what we would watch unless there would be aliens in it. I think I've had too much of those for a day. Or for a whole life.

Marie and Gargie started to quarrel over what kind of candy they wanted to buy. I really didn't mind what kind of snacks we would eat, I wasn't into eating sweets anyway. I just stood there like moron. I watched all the shelfs filled with DVDs and then out of the window. My gaze wandered along the busy street, looking at the people walking by the store. Among those people no one seemed interesting, everyone seemed to be in hurry. I guess it was what the city was all about.  
Then on the opposite street, I saw something, or someone just leaning on the building wall and standing there, her arms crossed around her chest. She just stood there, looking straight in front of her. Her gaze seemed to be so focused for some reason. I couldn't see what she looked like exactly. She had dark, short hair and her face shape reminded me of Marie. I turned my head around to look at Marie, there she was smiling and putting some pick 'n' mix candies to a paper bag. I turned my head again to see if that random girl was still there and she was, she probably noticed me looking at her direction because she left her place and walked away.  
"Come on, Oliver." Marie said. "Pick something you like." She smiled and handed me an empty bag.  
I sighed. _Calm down Oliver, you're just being paranoid._  
"What's with your hand?" Gargie asked.  
"Oh, this?" Marie said looking at her right hand. I hadn't noticed it before but there was a nasty looking wound between her index and middle finger.  
"I was playing with Roy and there was an accident." Marie explained.  
"It looks pretty bad, you might want my dad looking at it." Gargie said.  
"Your dad?" I asked.  
"He's a doctor." Gargie said. "And Hogatha is a vet."  
"Who's Hogatha?" I asked.  
"Gargie's stepmom." Marie told me.  
"That's nice." I said.  
"You wish." Gargie sighed.  
"Come on, give her a change." Marie said. "She's not that bad." Gargie glared at Marie who kept smirking at him.  
"Is Hogatha her real name?" I asked. "It sounds bit weird..."  
"Nah, I just call her that." Gargie said.  
He seemed like he wanted to say something more about the subject, but then we heard barking.  
"Roy." Marie mumbled. "What is he up to now?"

We paid for the candy and movies, Marie hurried outside. Roy kept barking and staring at the opposite direction of the street.  
"What's wrong?" She asked. Dog squeaked at her but kept staring at the other direction.  
"Maybe he saw one of those scary squirrels." Gargie suggested.  
Marie laughed. "Roy was scared of squirrels when he was little."  
"Oh..."  
"Shall we go then?" Gargie asked. We both agreed we should go to Gargie's place. He lived in a house around Manhattan. It was this quite idyllic house you could see on TV show with a family, mom, dad and children living in it.  
"I can see what you're thinking, pal." Gargie said. "Just like on the TV, huh?"  
"I... I guess..." I didn't want to be rude, or ask questions, it was pretty clear he didn't want to talk about it.  
"Don't be shy, I thought the same thing. You know, idyllic house straight from TV."  
"I guess it's pretty perfect..." Marie said.  
"You bet it is!" Gargie sighed. "Well it beats the company of my mom. Really charming woman, you'd like him, Ol."  
"Yeah. I'd appreciated if you didn't call me that..." I mumbled. Marie giggled.  
"Here we go again."  
"What? My nicknames are awesome!" Gargie said.  
"Well, at least you're not calling me mama." Marie smirked. I couldn't help but smile, I knew she was talking about Nils, who tried to irritate Marie by calling her mama.  
"True. I call you frost bite." Gargie noted.  
"Valdemar, aren't you and your friends getting in?" It was a cheerful woman's voice. Red haired woman had just stepped outside of the house. She smiled at us, just the same way my aunt smiled when I first brought Marie over to our place.  
"Yeah, sure." Gargie said, with slightly colder tone I've never heard him using. "You stalker."  
"Come on, she's just trying to be nice." Marie whispered to him. Gargie didn't seem to like his stepmother very much. Sure I had heard stepmoms could be horrible, but Gargie's stepmom seemed really nice. I mean when we got inside she greeted Marie with a smile.  
"It's so nice to see you Marie." She said. "Thorin has waited for you a quite some time."  
"I hope he didn't bother you." Marie said.  
"Oh, no. He's been really quiet." Gargie's stepmom said. "And Storm has mainly slept. She really likes the place I made for her in living room."  
"Well she's starting to be old..." Marie said.  
"I'd say she still has many years left as I told you when I last checked her on my consulting hours."  
"I hope so. She means lot to me." Marie said while stroking Roy's fur.  
"You must be Oliver." Gargie's stepmom said as she turned her gaze on me. "I'm Irene, I'm Valdemar's stepmother."  
"Yeah, I thought you would be." Which was probably foolish thing to say, but I couldn't figure out what else to say.  
"Where's dad?" Gargie asked.  
"He's at work." Irene said. "Why? Do you need something?" She started to look worried.  
"No. I was just asking." Gargie said coldly. "Come on guys, let's go to my room."

Gargie wasn't pleased to find one of Marie's dogs sleeping on his bed.  
"Hey, who told you, you can sleep on my bed?" It was huge black and white Spitz and he sure didn't want to hear any complains, he jumped down from the bed and walked towards us, he completely ignored me and Gargie, he walked straight to Marie and looked at her. Marie stroked his fur and smiled at the dog.  
"You shouldn't make Gargie angry you know."  
"Are you kidding me? He loves to make me angry." Gargie said, he sounded amused though.

Gargie's dad joined us on dinner, he looked a lot like his son with his black hair and light green eyes. He said hi to us, and then he kissed his wife on the cheek. Gargie rolled his eyes on it.  
"Someday you'll find someone too." His dad pointed out.  
"Like that's going to happen." Gargie said. "We are forever single, me and Marie." They smirked at each other.  
"Say Marie, what happened to your hand?" Gargie's dad asked, when Marie was pouring some milk from the bottle into her glass. Marie raised her healthy hand up.  
"Nothing wrong here."  
"I meant your other hand." Gargie's dad specified.  
"Oh this?" Marie said as she quickly showed her so called injured hand. "It's nothing. I just played with Roy and there was an accident."  
"Well, I'd like to take a look at it, if you don't mind." Gargie's dad suggested.  
"Could we do that after the meal?" Marie asked. "This is delicious!"  
"Why thank you." Irene smiled at her. "Have you ever had mac and cheese before?"  
"No. I've never heard of it before." Marie said.  
"Stop kissing her ass, will you." Gargie said annoyed.  
_"Valdemar!"_ His dad raised his voice.  
"Well _excuse me_ for enjoying first home made meal for I've had weeks." Marie mumbled so loud everyone could hear it.

"So, why do you call Marie frost bite?" I asked after meal when we were in Gargie's room while Marie had gone to the office where Gargie's dad worked.  
"There's two reasons." Gargie said smiling. "First one is because Marie was found in Russia, she almost froze to death, so first thing I asked about it, was, if she was frostbitten or what."  
"Wait, what do you mean by she was found?" I asked.  
"She hasn't told you?" Gargie asked. "Well it's not a secret or anything. Marie's dad would always go hunting trips to Russia. One of his dogs caught her scent and led him to Marie who was almost buried under the snow."  
"How did she end up in Russia?" I asked.  
"She doesn't remember." Gargie said while shaking his head. "Anyway, Mathias took Marie under his wing and brought her with him to Finland."  
"So Marie's... Adopted?" I asked slowly.  
"Does it matter?" Gargie asked.  
"No, of course not." I said quickly. "She just never spokes of it."  
"I guess there's nothing to speak about it." Gargie sighed. "She's happy with her family and life she has."  
"I always thought her dad or mom was Asian..." I said.  
"Nope." Gargie said.  
"So what's the other reason?" I asked.  
"Well that's what you have to ask from Marie." Gargie grinned. Marie entered the room and sighed.  
"G, your dad is asking me some weird questions."  
"Like what? Is he bringing out some kind alien theories?" Gargie asked amused.  
"Almost. He was like, these are not dog's biting marks and started to ask what I've been doing of late."  
"Oh boy. I think he needs taking a break from work." Gargie said eyes wide.  
"So, should we start watching the movies?" Marie suggested.

It was 3 am. Marie was sleeping soundly, but I couldn't stop thinking about what Gargie had told me about her. It wasn't the story that got to me, it was the things we didn't know about her past. Maybe something bad had happened, maybe that was the reason she could guess what happened between me and my dad. Maybe she had to go through something like that too.  
"You saw her too, didn't you?" Gargie asked.  
"What?" I asked, heck I thought he was sleeping too.  
"That girl on the street, when we were at the DVD store." Gargie said. "The one who just stood there and stared at us."  
"You can't know if she was staring at _us."_ I pointed out.  
"You saw who she looked like." Gargie said.  
"Not really, I mean she was kind of far away." I said.  
"And the next thing you're going to say is that all Asians looks a like." Gargie sighed. "Save it, I've heard it from my mom, and so has Marie."  
"I wasn't going to." I said. "I just noticed they had a similar face." I was silent for a moment.  
"Did Marie had a family before she was adopted?" I asked.  
"I think so." Gargie yawned. "She just doesn't like speaking about them." He yawned again  
"I bet Liisi would know..."  
"Who's she?" I asked, but I didn't get answer to that. I guess he fell asleep. I turned my head around to see Marie. She looked so peaceful. I decided to throw away my thoughts I had moments before. Maybe nothing bad had never happened to this girl, maybe she just knew how to read people or something. Maybe I was just being paranoid.


	10. Chapter 8 - When nothing is going right

**A/N**:Here it is, I hope you guys like it because I don't feel like writing anymore. It's not that I don't like this story, in fact I love writing this, but I'm being honest here, I don't like the way the series is going. As I heard Mona-Lisa being on the series (I've never liked her character), I kind of lost the inspiration for writing this, I guess you can tell it by looking at the text. It's not that Marie's feeling melancholic in this chapter, I wanted it that way when I started thinking about plot few months back. Yes I actually think about the plot line before writing the story. I have so many ideas for this story, and I want to write some chapters based on the actual episodes it's just I really dislike season 3 – Marie was actually set to be written doing random stuff in 2003 universe with those turtles I grew up along with her counterpart but what's the idea of writing a story based on the show I've started to dislike? Well, sure I could ignore it like I was ignoring April when I was watching the show when I still enjoyed it :D

If there are some people who wish to read more of this story, just write a comment, I'm not 100% sure if this will be the last chapter I'm doing, like I said I do have ideas, this story hasn't even began just yet. I do have some ideas planned but I'm open for new ideas as well. My school is starting again in three weeks this is going to be my final year in vocational school so I don't know how much time I have for writing fanfiction. So let's just say this will be the last chapter for a while.

**Update:** This chapter had a ton of typos (I can see now I was no mood of writing..) I tried to fix them all but I may have not spotted them all, I hope it doesn't bother you!

* * *

Chapter 8 – When nothing is going right

"Ms. Blomgren, this is an English class not an art class." I lifted my face up from my notebook. Mrs. Moore was looking at me, blue eyes narrowed from irritation.  
"And your point was?" I asked. I guess that came out cheekier than I intended. She took my note book and probably read what I had written from a show she had picked us to review and watch. According to her we would learn English better by watching more English language shows.  
"Is this what you call a review?" She snorted. "_Space heroes is a cheesy, overly boring show about overly perfect captain and his team of heroes. Also the artwork looks boring as hell._" She glared at me.  
"This is exactly how you _don't_ write a review." Mrs. Moore pointed out loudly.  
"And why not?" I asked annoyed.  
"You need to tell the reader why you think the series is as you wrote _is_ _cheesy and overly boring_." She smirked at me, I had this nasty feeling on my stomach, which I always had when I was being made fun of, or I made a mistake during classes and someone pointed it out.  
"Whatever." I mumbled.  
"It's not whatever, Ms. Blomgren." Mrs. Moore preached. "You need to state why things are as you claimed them to be or otherwise your writing isn't believable."  
I rolled my eyes and looked at Oliver who was sitting next to me. Well, I could say this is how my day started to get worse.  
"I hate it when they do that." I growled at Gargie after the class.  
"Relax. You know how they are." Gargie tried to cheer me up. "Besides you still have your ballet lessons." I know he was trying to cheer me up, but of course, I didn't know what kind of catastrophe that would end up to be, _the_ _ballet_...

It was one of those days nothing would work out for me. I hated _pirouettes_, when I had to show how I did it with everyone else looking at how I did my spinning. It was rather stressful, I wasn't actually their favorite person, so every mistake I made, they made sure it reached our teacher's eyes. As I rose to my toes and moved myself carefully on the line, doing the easier steps.  
_I can do this, I can do this_, I told myself when my feet started to tremble. I spin around one time, it went well, for second one, it didn't. Someone coughed or made some random noise and my focus on the move shattered and I fell, and hit my knees against the hard floor. I heard some giggling.  
"You do better next time mademoiselle Blomgren." Mademoiselle Perrault said coldly. "Next!"  
I stood up from the floor and walked away. There was no point of me staying, was there? The class was almost over and I knew I had failed where others would succeed. I failed even though I trained every day, I would come here for training, even at the weekends, and still I couldn't survive a simple pirouette when someone else was watching. What the hell was wrong with me? I went and locked myself inside the toilet. I sat on the toilet seat and looked as the water was flowing from the tap. Somehow watching the water flow and listening to the sound it made calmed me down. Still it didn't make me feel any better, it didn't take the fact that I blew it up away. I sighed and stood up. I washed my face with ice cold water and left the toilet. There was no point for me just continue sitting here and wishing everyone would go away, or was there? I sighed again and headed back to the dressing room. Of course when I stepped inside, there was totally fuss going on.  
"So what did she tell you?" One of the girls asked loudly. I just kept quiet and hoped no one would notice me. I went back to my pile of clothes and changed while the others kept chatting.  
"She told me she wanted me to do the audition for the _Swan Lake_, you know the ballet we are doing next spring." That was Tiffany, so called queen of the group. She had high pitched and some-what factitious voice.  
"That's great!" One of the girls almost screamed out. "She wants you to do the part of the main roles right?"  
"I heard it's really hard." Another one stated.  
"Well, the role would be mine as I am the most dedicated dancer in our group." Okay, this started to sound like so egotistical talk to me.  
"Did you tell that to her?" Someone asked enthusiastically.  
"I did, but she pointed out, I wasn't here during weekends, like some no-life." Tiffany snorted, somehow I felt like those last words were meant for my ears.  
"Relax, Tiff." One of her friends said. "It's not like she's a threat, I mean she can even do simple pirouette without failing." Well she was right, I couldn't do audition not even if I wanted to or had time to do so, not while I kept failing like this. I know I can do pirouettes I've done them in the past without messing every time I tried. I don't know what was wrong with me, but this much I did know: I would screw up whole ballet if I were to fall on my knees during the actual show. Well Tiff, don't you worry about a thing, I'm not going to compete with you. Maybe this whole company was too much for me. Seriously what was Kiriko thinking when she singed me up for this?

I left the dressing room and went straight to the lobby. Mom was there, and had probably had a good nap. I stroked her reddish brown fur.  
"Let's just go home." I said silently. She squeaked at me, but seemingly understood I wasn't at the mood of talking to anyone, not even to a dog. When I was half way there, home, my cellphone started ringing.  
"It's dad!" shrieked. "Maybe he's finally coming home!" That would make my day. Storm barked as a reply for my newly found enthusiasm.  
"Dad?" I answered the call.  
"Hey, sprout. How are you?" Those were usually the words dad said when he would call me.  
"I'm doing fine. Are you still in the hospital?" I asked.  
"Yes but they are going to let me go in few days." Dad said sounding really happy about it.  
"So you're coming home?" I asked.  
"About that." Dad said sounding bit awkward, I knew he was going to tell me something I didn't like. "There are still few things I need to do here."  
"Like what?" I asked.  
"Well, some work, you'd find it boring if I'd tell you." Dad answered avoiding the subject.  
"Aren't you retired?" I asked slightly annoyed.  
"Well, yes but little more money wouldn't hurt." Dad explained with his this time peace seeking voice.  
"Yeah." I said automatically.  
"Look I promise to come back home as soon as I can." Dad said, probably trying to reason with me, or something.  
"Yeah." I answered and ended the call. Nothing he could say would make me feel better, this was the last straw. I turned my cellphone off, if he tried to call me again to find out why I hanged up on him – which he wouldn't if I knew him well enough, this was just in case. I didn't feel like talking to anybody.

I didn't fancy going home at all. It was always the same, empty house with no one inside. Well that's not completely true, I had two dogs waiting for me, to be fed but I really missed some human company. Now you're probably wondering why don't I go and invite some friends over? Dad made me swear I wouldn't do that, I guess he's worried something might happen if I were alone in the house with some guy. As if I was _that_ stupid and as if Thorin wouldn't bite the hell out of the poor guy who had the idea of trying something perverted with me. Besides I was a good girl, I had no intention of breaking the promise I had made with him. Still always being a good girl waiting for dad to come back and having this stupid rule not to invite any guys over when I was alone in the house sucked. Dad just forgot the main thing, I only had guys for friends.  
"I'm ho-"I was going to say but suddenly I fell down to my back as something barked and jumped on me.  
"Hi to you too, Roy." I said as the white fur ball started licking my face. I didn't mind, my day had had too many unpleasant things happening, of course it could be worse but Roy jumping on me and licking my face wasn't one of the bad things. At least someone was happy to see me, without that someone wanting to point out how I can't do this simple move in ballet, or that I sucked at writing. I stroked Roy's rough fur for a while. Roy squeaked happily, because normally I would just push him away and go on with it. Today I just felt like it didn't make anything worse. Besides I take it, it was Roy's way of saying he liked me.  
"You're such a good boy." I whispered to him and stroked his neck. Roy looked at me confused, as if I had said something unconventional. I pushed him off of me so I could stand on my knees I leaned forward to give him a hug. I pressed my face against his white fur for a moment. Until Thorin showed up, he stood beside Roy, I reached out to him and put my another arm around him as well.  
"My favorite boys." I mumbled. Then I pressed my face against Thorin's black fur for a moment, Thorin made a low voice someone could have had mistaken for a growl, but it was more like a normal sound he liked to make time to time, it could mean, "It's okay.", "I'm tired." or "Don't mess with me brat." – Which was mostly used when Roy annoyed him. Now I think Thorin was trying to comfort me.  
"I bet you guys want some food." I sighed as I decided to finally get up. Roy barked anxiously and started jumping against me, like he always did, when I mentioned it was feeding time.  
"Roy stop it!" I shouted, but that only made him more eager to jump on me. I tried to walk as quickly as I could to the kitchen but Roy was quick and followed me, still trying to jump on me.  
"Stop it!" I yelled at him and grabbed his collar. "No jumping!"  
I dragged him down with me, I stood on my knees in front of the white fur ball.  
"Have I ever forgotten to give you food?" I asked. Roy looked at me silently. "I thought so."

At kitchen Roy was going to do his old trick again as I was pouring some dog food to the measure cup. This time I saw it coming, I turned around and pressed my hand against his forehead and gently pushed him down.  
"No." I said firmly. Roy was back sitting on the floor and watched me silently.  
"There's your cup." I said as I put his feeding cup in front of him. Roy didn't waste a second to begin to chomp on his food. I filled his water cup and placed it next to the food cup.  
"Good boy, Roy." I said as I stroked his back. I think he's finally got it, that you don't jump around when it is feeding time.  
Next was Mom's turn, I had to fed Roy first because he was so impatient he could go and eat Thorin's food before it was his turn to get some, and Thorin didn't like Roy messing with his cup. Mom was standing there patiently, waiting for me to fill her cup and bring her some water. Mom was an easy dog, despite being Finnish Spitz, known as a headstrong barker by nature, she didn't do any of that, nor did she start a fight with other dogs while I walked her outside which is said to be another trait Finnish Spitz had.  
"Here you go, Mom." I said to her and placed her food in front of her, like Roy she started to chomp on her food. I filled her water cup and placed it next to her as well.  
"Now, where's Thorin?" I asked. Here's a thing with Thorin, you never need to ask where he is, because when you have already asked the question, he's there either next to you, or behind you. Thorin made a small noise so I would know he was sitting behind my back.  
"There you are." I said. "Are you hungry?" He didn't give me any answer, so I just filled his cups and placed them in front of him.  
"There you go." I said and stroked his back. I gazed at the draining board, it was filled with dishes needed to be washed. I sighed. I wasn't in the mood to do so.

I went to upstairs, in my room, and opened the window, I gazed to the darkness quite some time until I heard Thorin making a low noise, this was – again, one of those almost growling noises, but this was him letting me know, he's here. He was standing behind me, dangling my worn ballet shoes from his mouth. He dropped them at my feet. He nudged them with his nose.  
"Are you saying I should just keep practicing?" I asked. "What if it's no use?"  
Thorin let out a bark. I looked at him for a moment his eyes looked firmly at me. It was as he didn't want me to give up. I sighed again, I removed my socks and put the shoes on. I went to stand on the carpet near the open window and made the starting steps. I got on my toes, I lifted my bended left leg at the level my right knee, and then I spin around. I think it went well, until the carpet I was standing on moved and I slipped. Once again, I found myself lying on the floor.  
"Well, that was graceful."

I lifted my face up, towards the window I had heard those words coming from.  
"What are you doing here?" I asked from the human sized turtle.  
"Nothing." He said, sounding bit care free as he said it.  
"So you aren't here to check if there is an alien hiding under my bed?" I asked.  
"Not really." He said. "I was just bored."  
"So you just decided to drop in?" I asked, while Thorin growled at him. "Stop it Thorin. If he tries something, I'll kick him out of the window."  
He smirked. "I'd like to see that."  
"Too bad for you, I'm not in the mood." I said as I went to sat on my bed, I removed my ballet shoes and put socks back on.  
"You don't look so good." He noted.  
"Like you could tell." I answered. "You don't even know me well enough to tell if I'm upset or what so ever."  
"You like to throw those sarcastic comments on my face." He pointed out. "You haven't done that yet."  
"I'm not in the mood." I hardly explained. "So did you have a fight with someone again?" I didn't mean anything by it, I just didn't want to start that awkward moment when I had to explain what was wrong with me today.  
"Kind of." He said shortly. "Let's just say this isn't my day."  
"Welcome to the club." I sighed. Thorin started to growl, because Mr. Turtle jumped in from the window still he had been sitting on.  
"Thorin, stop it." I snapped. Thorin looked at me, and was silent all the sudden. I guess he realized I wasn't in a mood of hearing him doing growling all the time as he usually did when Greenie was around.  
"You don't mind if I drop in, do you?" He asked.  
"Nah." I answered. "So did you kill anything today? Last time it was facehuggers."  
"It was what?" Turtle asked, looking slightly confused.  
"Well, they hug faces." I tried to explain, but then I thought it was just better show him Aunt Mina's Alien film collection.  
"Come on, I'll show you."  
"You don't happen to have those in your cellar?" He asked, I think it was meant as sarcastic or possibly joking question.  
"Nope." I said and managed to smile.

Roy was currently at the living room, as soon as he saw Greenie, he jumped on him, causing the turtle to fall back and eventually end up lying on the floor with the ADHD dog standing on him and licking his face.  
"Will you just..!" He snapped on his turn.  
"He likes you." I laughed. "He does that to everyone he likes."  
"Really? I wouldn't have guessed." He said annoyed.  
"Roy, come on." I told the dog, but he was already doing something else, he jumped off of the turtle and started running around the house. He stepped on the remote control which I left on the floor next to the couch, Roy was in such a hurry to leave – probably for the kitchen that he didn't notice he had accidentally put the TV on. I didn't turn my head towards it to know what show was on, that cheesy dialogue was enough.  
"No, not this shit!" I yelled and shut the TV down while breathing heavily.  
"So I take you don't like the series either." The turtle said.  
"I _hate _it." I answered. "It's cheesy, it's stupid, art work and animation looks like shit!"  
Greenie looked at me and blinked his eyes, like he didn't get what I was saying. I took a breath and sat on couch.  
"Those were the words I used to describe the show in my review, we were supposed to write in English class." I explained. "Our teacher made us watch that piece of shit, she thinks we learn the language better, which I guess we do but..."  
Greenie sat next to on the couch.  
"I think it's stupid a show." He said. "At least you don't have a sibling who loves it to the death and spends every moment he can in front of the TV watching the show and sometimes even mimicking captain Ryan."  
I tried to imagine one of my friends doing that, but I couldn't do that for long before bursting into laughter.  
"Really? Someone does that?"  
He nodded. "Sometimes I wonder if he realizes how stupid that makes him sound."  
"Well, I guess everyone has their own taste in these things..." I said.  
"Or they are trying too much." Greenie smirked. "Anyway, what was that talk about those face huggers of yours?"  
"Oh, that." I remembered. I got up and looked for a video. "There."  
I gave him the cover and pointed at the small creature attached to some poor astronaut's face.  
"Those are called the face huggers, because they do that to a person." I explained.  
"So they just go around and do that to people?" Greenie asked, clearly not impressed.  
"Well, in these movies there are these aliens who kind of grow inside the human being or animal, but in order to do so, this face hugger here needs to plant its embryos inside the being."  
"Was that the reason you asked those crazy questions back then?" Greenie asked, this time looking slightly amused.  
"Yeah. I guess I've been watching way too much these kind of movies." I smiled awkwardly.  
"It's not what they do." Greenie said.  
"Then what is it?" I asked.  
"Look, the less you know the better." Greenie said.

We were silent for the moment. I found myself sighing again.  
"You're doing it again." He pointed out. "What are you moping about anyway?"  
"You know when anything isn't going the way you'd like them to?" I asked.  
"I think I got the picture." Greenie said.  
"Today just is one of those days." I said silently. "My English teacher just decided to use my review as a bad example of writing, I messed up on ballet class – you saw how well I do pirouettes right?"  
"Is that what whatever you were doing is called?" Greenie asked.  
I nodded.  
"So you tripping back there wasn't part of the move, huh?" He noted.  
"Nope." I sighed. "I've done it many times before without tripping – but it was before I moved here."  
"Try again." As if it was as simple as that. "Anything else?"  
"Why do you want to know?" I asked firmly as I wasn't exactly happy about telling my personal things to a total stranger.  
"I don't feel like going home." He mumbled.  
"Well, welcome to the club." I sighed.  
"You are home." He pointed out.  
"It's totally different thing being home than actually wanting to go there." I said.  
"And the next thing you're telling me, is that you're lonely." That was meant to be sarcasm, but he had no idea how true his words were.  
"Yeah." I said silently. "I guess I am, when I come home every night."  
We sat there in silence for a moment.  
"So your dad..." He said sounding bit awkward.  
"Doesn't seemingly care about me enough to be home." I told him. "It sucks, he just wants me to be this good girl waiting for him patiently. But I don't want to be."  
"Then don't be, it's as easy as that." Greenie said.  
"What do you suppose I'm to do?" I asked. "Jump off the cliff? Rob a bank?"  
"Just do something your dad won't approve." Greenie said, looking bored, I guess it was boring, having to explain these things to someone who was so stupid or unexperienced at being nothing more than a good girl.

Then an idea struck me. I rushed to the kitchen and took the newest order list from the nearest pizzeria.  
"So your grand idea is to eat pizza?" Greenie asked.  
"The thing isn't eating pizza but where I am going to eat it." I smirked. I went to the phone and called the pizza place. After last winter I wasn't the biggest fan of pizza, but this had to do, dad didn't like me ordering pizza because of the mess I made last time. But this would serve him right, maybe he'll think twice next time before leaving me alone for long time.  
"Don't tell me, you're going to break into the nearest bank and eat it there?" Again with the sarcasm.  
"Nah, that's too far." I said rolling my eyes. "So what's up with you?"  
"Huh?"  
"Come on, I told you about my miserable day." I smiled at him. "It couldn't have that bad."  
"It wasn't." Greenie said silently. "At least I thought so."  
"What happened?" I asked.  
"We were doing something, then I got to send home." He spoke silently, maybe he didn't want me to hear it, or at least not all of it.  
"Why?" I asked.  
He sighed. "I guess I just snapped."  
"It happens." I said, at least trying to cheer him up.  
"To me more than other people can handle." Greenie noted.  
I guess he had a temper, a little. I've only seen him snap once and it's not nearly as bad as I've seen my dad snap or Hannes in that matter was worse.  
"I guess you snapped at me last time huh?"  
"Yeah. I suppose I did." Greenie said silently. "It just happens sometimes."  
"I know, sometimes for me too." I said, I remembered the English lesson, if the bell hadn't rang, I probably could have snapped to the bitch, then I would have said something improper and then it would have been detention for me. Still, lucky I wasn't Hannes, if I was I'd never could've kept my mouth shut.

The doorbell rang.  
"I guess that's it." I said and got up. I went to the door to get the pizza. I paid for pizza to a deliver boy, and thanked him for delivering the pizza.  
"So where are you going to eat that?" Greenie asked as I got back to the living room.  
"I have a place in mind." I smirked. I noticed while seeing my smirking face, he seemed disturbed, at least he turned his face away. Maybe my smirking face was so stupid he needed to hold back a laughter or something.  
I went back upstairs, and the green guy followed, I guess he was either bored or curious to see what I was up to. My guess was on the first. There was a door to the balcony in hall way between dad's bedroom and my room. I opened the door and stepped to the balcony and closed my eyes for a moment, to enjoy the cold breeze of wind blowing against my face.  
"So your big plan is to eat pizza here?" I could hear the sarcastic tone in his voice.  
"No." I laughed. "Up there." And I pointed to the roof. We had ladders next to the balcony, just in case we needed to use the roof, or plow the snow off the roof during the winter. I climbed up the ladders and sat on the roof top. I gazed at the sight, it was dark and sky was probably filled with clouds because there were no stars. Lights were on in some of the houses on our neighborhood, dim light from the houses I could see around the view made everything kind of pretty.  
"So, you do this kind of stuff often?" Greenie asked as he was climbing up the ladder.  
"No. But my dad wouldn't approve of this." I smiled, I doubt he didn't see my smile since it was dark. He sat next to me and I put the pizza box between us.  
"Have some." I told him.  
Greenie looked at me for few seconds with serious face.  
"You haven't poisoned the pizza, have you?"  
"Why would I do that?" I asked skeptically as I opened the box. "Give me one good reason."  
"Well... I..." He mumbled.  
"The thing is, I shouldn't be eating greasy foods, I should watch how much I weight and stuff." I explained to him as I took the first slice of pizza on my hand and took bite of the cheesy goodness.  
"Why?" Greenie asked.  
"It comes along while being a ballet dancer, I guess." I sighed.  
"Oh..." Greenie took a slice of pizza for himself and started eating it.  
"But the funniest thing is, I love eating greasy food." I laughed awkwardly. "Or maybe it's just part of me I can't get out of me even if I people would tell me should. I don't even want to though."  
"It's the same with me." Greenie said silently. "Everyone tells me I should just work it out, and I am trying but still..."  
"You don't want it go away?" I guessed.  
"Not all of it." Greenie said.  
"Well it's a part of you, right?" I said. "I guess I'm just meant to be this girl who can't keep her mouth shut in certain occasions while you're a giant turtle with an attitude."

"Hey, it could be worse." I tried to cheer him up.  
"How?" Greenie asked simply unamused.  
"Well you could go and pick a fight with every single person that comes across you." I said cheerfully.  
"I try to avoid it." Greenie said.  
"Look, I know this person, who picks a fight with _everyone_. And he does this always. He can't control his temper in any way. And that's pretty scary." I sighed. "I mean you don't know what you should say to someone like that without having to fear he'll punch you on the face." Then again, I understood Hannes's reason for his temper, he is just trying to deal with a loss, but it made everyone to be scared of him. Of course Greenie didn't need to know this. After all, less he knew about it the better right? Hannes would probably punch me if he knew I'd told someone about him.  
"Well I'm not _that_ bad." Greenie admitted. "Or are you just making this up?"  
"No." I said. "I know this person, but it is better if you don't know the details."  
"I see." Greenie said. He had finished his first slice of pizza and grabbed another one.

We sat there in silence for a moment, eating.  
"So you don't think badly of the people with temper?" Greenie asked.  
"No, unless I got punched on my face by one." I smiled. I noticed him watching me carefully, but as he noticed I had noticed him looking at me he turned his face away and focused on eating the pizza.  
"My dad has quite a temper, and he gets angry very easily when the right person is annoying him."  
"Well I know how that feels." Greenie said.  
"But still he lives with himself." I sighed. "And likes to just dumb his daughter somewhere else while he's making these excuses for not being home."  
"So that's why you're doing this?" Greenie asked. "Sitting on the roof?"  
"Yes." I admitted. I stared at the dark night sky for a moment before speaking.  
"Is there something on my face?" I asked.  
"No." He said, not looking at my direction. "Why?"  
"Well, maybe I'm being paranoid here, but it seems to me my face is disturbing you." I said, and then it landed, that long awkward silence. I should've kept my mouth shut.  
"You kind of look like someone I don't really like." Greenie said slowly. "Actually you look just like her."  
"Really?" I couldn't think of anything else to say. "So that's why you chased me when we first met."  
"I guess." Greenie answered shortly. "But you don't act like her."  
"I don't?" Stupid thing to point out Marie, but I guess my brains weren't working properly.  
"No. To even think she would talk me like this on the roof top." I could detect a small tint of amusement from his voice. "She would just try to push me off the roof."  
"Is she like that?" I asked. Was there really such person, who would do something like that? I bet he could hear the surprise in my voice.  
"Yeah, she's pretty treacherous." Greenie said. "Once she threw a knife at my brother's head."  
"Really? That's freaky!" I shouted, almost any way. Then another question came to my mind. "And you thought I'm like her?"  
"You're too much of a wimp." Greenie noted. I didn't know what to say, was I a wimp? Maybe I was. I don't know. I never had much thought about what kind of person I was, was I acting like a wimp?  
"I mean compared to that snake you are." He corrected his saying.  
"That's okay. I feel good being this way, most of the time." I sighed. "Sometimes it gets on my nerves but I'll live with it."

I guess I was a wimp. I thought I was a tough one. I mean I didn't burst into tears easily, I could take care of myself while dad was away, but then again, I broke up when I didn't do well in ballet classes. That's not how strong or tough would people act.  
"What happened to you?" Greenie asked suddenly.  
"Like I said, I messed up in ballet classes." I sighed. "I tripped while doing this stupid move and everyone pretty much laughed." Which I didn't know, but I could imagine other girls doing so.  
"The thing is, I kept training and training and training, and it's not working." I babbled.  
"Then try again." It was simple. "Someone I know keeps telling us if you don't succeed try again until you do."  
I looked at Greenie. That was something I didn't expect from him. He usually was pretty nasty when it came to me.  
"That's what some annoying lady I know says." I said. "She's just saying it with more dangerous way. It's pretty scary." I laughed.  
"But thank you anyway."

"I should get going." Greenie said, he stood up but then he turned his face to look at me. "I guess I see you around uh..."  
"Marie." I smiled. "I think I managed forget your name too."  
"It's Raph." He said silently.  
"Well, I guess I'll see you around Raph." I said. "When something tries to kill me again."  
He left, jumping off the roof, he landed straight to the ground, on his feet and ran away. I sighed. I climbed down the latter and found someone watching me.  
"Hello, dad." I smirked. Thorin barked at me, he must've been watching me all this time from down here. He was a protective type, and hated strangers. I stroked his fur and smiled.  
"Guess what? We are doing some more dancing tonight. Until I can do a freaking pirouette without failing."


	11. Chapter 9 - The beginning for everything

**A/N:** Before I even start with this, there were completely four people who told me to continue this story, therefore I want to say my thanks to you, even if my story isn't perfect one :P But back to the point, here you have it the ninth chapter. This chapter was set to roll around Marie and Raph more but it turned out to be quite different from the one I had envisioned. Here Marie tries to figure out what the heck do the Kraang want with her friend, she even acts recklessly while trying to figure it out. I must say I'm quite happy how this chapter turned out, I really am and last time that happened it was with chapter 3 I think. Personally my favorite scenes were the beginning scene and the ending scene.

**Update:** Fixed some typos.

* * *

Chapter 9 – The beginning for everything

It was another ordinary Friday in Roosevelt High School. Marie looked at the wrinkled paper on her hand and checked the class number of the next class she should be in for a history class.  
"Out of all the subjects we got to choose from, you picked history?" Hannes sighed.  
"So?" Marie asked. She was no mood for this. She liked going to the high school nearby for art classes twice a week but there were also things she didn't like. That red haired girl being one of them. Marie had no idea what she had done to annoy this girl, but seemingly she hated her. At least that's the picture Marie got since the red hair was giving her nasty eyes every time Marie looked at her direction. Normally Marie would have just turned her head away from such a person who clearly hated her, but it was too bad the toilet was in that same direction. Gargie had just went to toilet and Marie waited for him, as she couldn't find things to talk about with Hannes. She felt uneasy when he was around, mainly because he could burst into rage at any time.  
"Don't mind that bitch." Hannes said. "She clearly has a problem."

Of course neither of them knew what the problem was. Casey Jones who stood next to his friend had heard it few times within the last hour.  
"So let me get this straight, red." Casey Jones said sounding bit awkward. "You think that's the girl what was her name again..?"  
"Karai." April O'Neil repeated bitterly.  
"Who's been fighting against the... You know who." Casey continued. "Shredder's daughter?"  
"That's right." April repeated.  
"So why the Shredder would send his daughter after you?" Casey asked. April couldn't help but let out a frustrated sigh. Casey had no idea why, of course April hadn't mentioned this little thing she had found out quite recently about herself, surely if Shredder was working with the Kraang he probably knew about it, so he had sent his daughter to kidnap April or to keep an eye on her.  
"That's what he does." April said after thinking for few seconds. Casey took another look at this so called "Karai." He knew – from what he had heard from Raph, that this girl looked a lot like Karai but seemingly she wasn't her. All Casey could see was an Asian girl with braided dark hair, who looked a lot like what Casey would call a book worm, with that hair-style and eye-glasses.  
"I don't know, red." He said. "She doesn't seem like the type."  
"She doesn't have to, I've been told that the most kunoichi are trained to not look like they are assassins." April pointed out. "Besides, she is looking at this way."  
"Maybe that's because she's waiting for someone?" The voice behind April's back pointed out. That voice belonged to a boy with black messy hair and green eyes. He was scrawny and what April could see around as tall as Donnie was. He looked down to her, however he didn't look annoyed or anything, but it was before he opened his mouth: "Seriously everything isn't about you bitch, deal with it."  
"What?" April asked, clearly surprised at his tone of voice.  
"You seem like a person who likes to be noticed by everyone, and when you aren't getting it you just start spreading some rumors about someone whose face doesn't please you."  
"Hey wait a second!" Casey said, probably sensing this would turn into a fight or maybe he just wanted to protect April, or both.

"Gargie is fucking with someone." Marie said as she had noticed Gargie coming out from the toilet and starting a discussion with red haired girl. At first it didn't seem like much until Jonesy or what-ever his name was yelled at him. Gargie may had played a tough guy but he wouldn't stand a change if it turned into a fist fight. Marie stood up and took a step forward, she had to get him out of there.  
"Oh, that guy." Hannes said. "And his precious little slut."  
"Why are you saying that?" Marie asked. She didn't like judging people by their looks, but she hadn't taken any liking towards the red haired girl, she had spoken weird things to Marie when they first met and according to Hannes she had tried to throw something at her face. But it wasn't the main thing why Marie disliked her, this girl just kept giving Marie these angry looking stares, it seemed like she already hated her or something. Marie had no intention finding out why, for she had already seen those kind of stares back at her home country. Girls at her class used to give her those stares when she had just moved in and didn't know how to speak the language properly, some – like Gargie's mom were giving her that stare because of how she looked. Maybe it wasn't that common to see Asians in Finnish small town and some people just were prejudiced or racist. But maybe it wasn't the case here, Marie could just be over-thinking it.  
"What's going on?" She asked as she reached them.  
"That crazy chick thinks you're some kind serial killer." Gargie was speaking in their language as he always did when they were talking about something.  
"Excuse me?" Marie asked sounding amused and confused at the same time.  
"Well someone doesn't have all the _Moomins _in the valley..." Hannes mumbled. "Well that is to be expected."  
Marie giggled, it was so weird to hear a tough big guy like Hannes to speak about such characters as the _Moomins_. Marie took a quick gaze towards two Americans, hearing three kids speaking in different language and laughing, Jonesy's face looked like he was thinking the kids from the other school were making fun of them.  
"Come on, let's go." Marie said quietly putting her another arm around Gargie's back and walked away, she didn't do the same to Hannes for few reasons, one was the fact that she didn't reach that high for Hannes was much taller and bigger than she was. Another reason was she didn't find comfy doing such thing to the boy with a quick temper, and third was because he scared her.

But Hannes followed them, sat down with them on the wooden bench near the history class.  
"What did Oliver pick again?" Marie asked.  
"Some psychology class his sis recommended for him." Gargie replied. Oliver wasn't with them at the moment, he had already gone for the class. Soon enough Gargie left for his math class. Hannes just sat there.  
"Shouldn't you be getting on your class?" Marie asked.  
"I don't have classes. I take P.E on Mondays and Wednesdays." Hannes said. "I'm heading to the ice rink."  
"Oh." Marie had always hated physical education as a school subject, it seemed stupid, so pointless to run around in circles as some middle aged woman – like their teacher in middle school, screaming them to hurry it up, or something terrible would happen. Marie would rather sit inside the classroom, listening to the teacher's babbling while taking notes than running in circles.

Unlike Marie, Casey didn't fancy this subject, he had always seen history as boring as the other subjects at school, and he'd rather spend his days on the ice rink, as he had done in the past years during history classes. Sometimes he would show up and pretty much sleep through the lessons. In fact this was his third time taking this class and he didn't look forward to it, not one bit. April had already left for her next class, because her best friend Irma had come and started or rather nagged of how she didn't want to be late and _neither did April._ Casey didn't like her, because she was always there throwing her sarcastic comments at his face or doing something slightly annoying. He was bored, nothing even slightly interesting was going on, just students going back and ford towards their classrooms or lockers, some even prepared to go home, those lucky ones...  
There was nothing to see here, just bunch of high school kids either walking around or talking to their friends. Marie was sitting with a friend too, Casey didn't understand how someone could be friends with Johannes Strom, that guy literally pushed everyone away, he was always angry and moody – even more than Raph, and that was saying a lot. Also that guy just picked a fight with anyone. But there he was talking to a girl, and she was smiling at him. Then the bell rang which meant the start of the history class.

Marie decided to sit in a front row. She didn't want to miss a thing. She was excited to see what kind of history lessons they had in America, her dad claimed all Americans did on their history classes was talk about the history of their _own_ country.  
"Well, we shall see." Marie thought interestingly. She started to dig her school bag, putting her thick notebook, history book and a pencil case on her desk.  
"Do you mind if I sit here?" Casey asked.  
"Go ahead." Marie replied, without even looking at his way. Casey was curious, he was pretty sure this wasn't the girl April thought she was, from what Casey knew this Karai sounded like a tough girl, yet a girl April was accusing of being Karai seemed shy somehow, and she looked anything but tough. Yet she had acted pretty toughly at that night Casey and Raph had saved her from those guys who tried to rob her. Raph had never mentioned her before that night. Casey had no idea they knew each other. This girl looked so normal, someone who would do normal things, but so did April...

"How do you know Mary?" Casey had asked from Raph on that night after they had seen the girl leaving with her dog.  
"Are you guys like..."  
"No." Raph answered firmly. "I barely even know her!"  
"So what?" Casey grinned. "You should get to know her. You like her right?"  
"I do not." Raph said slightly annoyed. "She looks too much like Shredder's daughter to be comfortable around."  
"That girl Leo has crush on?" Casey asked, Raph had told him about Karai and Leo's fondness towards her, but he hadn't met the girl. "What is she like anyway?"  
"Treacherous." Raph had answered.  
"And is she treacherous?" Casey had asked implying on Marie. "She doesn't seem like one, I mean she thanked us."  
"I still don't trust her." Raph pointed out.  
"Do you think she's Karai wearing a disguise or something?" Casey asked.  
"I don't think so." Raph replied.  
"So what's the problem?" Casey asked.  
"It's just bothers me, okay?" Raph almost yelled. "The fact that she looks like someone whose being threatening my family."

Raph needed to loosen his belt on this, it would be good for him to have a friend of his own, outside of the lair and somehow Casey who maybe wasn't the smartest person to ever walk the earth, got the feeling that's what Raph really wanted, after what happened with Slash, he didn't have anyone to talk to. Raph didn't mention it though.  
Casey looked at Marie, who was taking notes from the blackboard to her notebook. Casey opened his note book, but he wasn't going to take any notes, he was bored and wanted something to do, something that _didn't _include studying.

_How did you met Raph?_ He wrote to the clear page and pushed the notebook to Marie's desk. Marie stopped taking notes and for the first time she looked at Casey. This time Casey could tell she knew him.  
_It's a long story._ Marie wrote as a reply, not that kind of reply Casey was looking for.  
_Have you known him for a long time?_ Was the next question.  
_No._ Marie answered shortly before she continued taking notes.  
Casey was disappointed, he was looking for more specific answer. It wasn't like it was a secret right? Casey was Raph's friend too, so there wasn't a problem.  
_Did you and your friends insult us or something?_ Marie didn't reply right away, she continued taking notes like a good student should.  
_No. Hannes didn't either, he just said your friend didn't have all the Moomins in the valley._ Casey didn't understand what did that mean, what the heck were the Moomins anyway?  
Marie took a look at the black haired guy and wrote a reply before he was able to write a question.  
_It's a saying some from our country like to use, I guess it's a synonym for saying, that person hasn't got everything right in her or his head. It's hard to explain. The Moomins are used by Finns because I guess they are the only thing our country is known for. They are characters from books, comics and a children's program._  
Casey nodded. _Why were you laughing?_  
Marie smiled at the page. _Because Hannes said it. It's weird to hear him using a phrase including character from the kid's show._

For the rest of the class Marie focused on studying, listening to the teacher, and taking notes. Then the bell rang, again. Marie packed her things quickly, even though she wasn't in any kind of hurry, her ballet lessons wouldn't start until a few hours later. She could go home to change, Marie didn't feel comfortable wearing her school uniform all day long if she wasn't at school. Then she could take a walk with her dogs. These were the usual things Marie did after school hours. However usually Marie would hang out with her two friends, but nothing would go as it normally would. Marie started seeking her friends as she left the classroom, but she didn't find any of them. She had no idea where their classrooms were located, so she went and sat on the bench, located near the entrance to the high school. She sat there looking at the people getting out. She didn't see Gargie or Oliver anywhere. Maybe they went outside.  
"You're Marie right?" Enthusiastic girly voice asked. Blonde haired girl sat next to her. "You're my brother's classmate."  
Marie looked at the girl, she had a round face, long golden blonde hair tied back with ponytail, and then blue eyes, she looked like a typical teen from typical American drama, only difference was, she spoke Marie's language.  
"Yeah." Marie said.  
"Anyway we are taking a trip to countryside, Aunt Karolina has a cabin there and she thought it would be good for Oliver to be gone for a weekend."  
"You're Oliver's sister." Marie had finally got it, it may seem stupid, but every time Marie had visited Oliver, his sister was never around.  
Blonde haired girl nodded enthusiastically. "Just call me Eva. Anyway, Oliver told me you met our dad."  
"Has he been bothering you after that?" Marie asked. Eva Carlsen stood up.  
"Let's talk outside."  
Marie nodded, Eva probably didn't want to talk about it someone could hear, someone who Eva really didn't want to hear about her family background. On the other hand, Marie doubt if someone actually knew what they were saying because they didn't even speak English…

Marie followed the girl to the school yard. Marie was silent for a moment, she had the feeling she shouldn't be the one talking.  
"My aunt and uncle are getting a restraining order for him." Eva sighed. "It's good but..."  
"Is it going to have any help?" Marie asked.  
"I doubt it, but what else we could do? Oliver is already scared pretty much of everything. You know all he ever does is sitting inside his room."  
"Yeah, I asked about his hobbies and he said he didn't have any." Marie said. "I guess it's good, I mean at least he has some actual free time, with me ballet takes almost all of my free time."  
"You dance ballet?" Eva asked, again with the enthusiastic tone.  
"Yeah. I've been dancing almost ten years." Marie said feeling bit awkward.  
"That's amazing!" Eva shouted. Marie started to feel more awkward as the people walking pass stared started staring at them.  
"I didn't mean to talk about this, but I'm worried about my brother." Eva said, not sounding enthusiastic, just silent.  
"Is there something wrong with him?" Marie asked.  
"Well, I think he's really believing in those things dad says to him, you know about it, right?"  
"Yeah, kind of. Oliver has told me somethings." Marie said slowly, because even though Oliver had told her somethings his father had said and she had even seen the guy and hear him talk about those things, but there could be things Oliver hasn't mentioned.  
"So he speaks to you." Eva said. "No wonder."  
"What?" Marie asked, suddenly she had clearly missed something important or at least that was how she felt like.  
"You should come to see him more often, I think he'd like it." Eva said with a sparkle in her eyes.  
"Sure, I'd like that." Marie said. "Maybe I should drag Gargie over too." They walked together to the parking place where Eva hopped on her uncle's car and drove away. Marie stood there looking for her friend.  
"Geez, has the earth swallowed Gargie or what?" Marie asked aloud. She sighed, then a thought came to her mind, she took her cellphone out of her pocket, to see if there was new messages or calls she had missed. There was one text message and indeed, it was from Gargie.  
_Sorry, FB_ – Marie hated that abbreviation Gargie sometimes used for the nickname he invented for Marie. _Dad picked me up, he wants to do some father and son related with me today.  
Ps. Hogatha asked to invite you to our "family dinner" on Sunday, say you'll be there, I can't stand those without any decent company!_

Marie sighed again, well at least she'd get free home-made meal on Sunday. Marie decided to get move on, firstly she would go home and get rid of these stupid clothes and have her much more comfortable outfit to wear. Of course much like the other day almost a week ago nothing would go like she had planned. Casey on the other hand had it planned, he would go to the ice rink later, when there was no one to pick fight with him, or when the guy named Hannes Strom were nowhere to be seen, and normally he didn't mind getting into fights, but with that guy it was more like after you said hi to him or something he'd punch on the face. That guy clearly had problems, but Casey wasn't in mood of figuring out what they were, but what he really wanted to figure out, was that girl, how did she meet Raph and why did he like her. Of course Casey thought Raph must like this girl, because he was irritated by her, to Casey that was a sign of a crush, but to Raph that wasn't sign of anything.  
"Hey, wait up!" Casey yelled as he saw Marie leaving the school yard. Marie didn't notice him at first, sure she heard him, but she didn't think someone would call out to her. Marie was walking slowly, she didn't fancy going home, she wasn't in any kind of hurry at all, she might as well take her time. Until Casey stopped her.  
"Hey." He said. "Where are you headed?"  
"Home." Marie said. "For now."  
"So I kind of want to know." Casey said. "How did you meet Raph?"  
Marie sighed. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to laugh or what.  
"It's nothing special really. He pretty much thought I was someone he hated and followed me around."  
"So what was that thing about the reptile costume?" Casey asked sounding amused.  
"Oh, that." Marie couldn't help but laugh a bit. "When I saw him, I just thought he was some creep walking around wearing a costume."  
"But you figured it out later, right?" Casey asked. "Didn't it scare you or something?"  
What was funny about that situation, Marie had never given it much thought, a human sized turtle fighting robots sounds bit freaky, but he didn't really scare Marie. At the moment Raph had broken that window on ballet studio, he just seemed so angry it was funny.  
"Actually I was more scared of that robot with a sword than him." Marie said. "I don't know where it came from or what I did to annoy it but then your friend came and for some reason he started mocking me."  
"What for?"  
Marie sighed again.  
"I guess he expected me to be like this amazing fighter."  
"Which you are not?" It was more of a guess than a question which Marie smiled to.  
"Hell no. Do I look like a fighter to you?" Marie asked. She knew already what the answer was going to be. Marie didn't look threatening at all, she looked like typical girl, someone who would rather spend her time with books rather than her friends.

Marie felt awkward, she was followed by someone she didn't know, they had a conversation which Marie felt odd of. She was talking about human-sized turtle with someone she barely knew, she was talking about someone she didn't know either, so there wasn't clearly anything she could say. Until she had the most ridiculous question anyone could think to ask. Marie remembered seeing this Jones guy wearing some kind of mask, which reminded her of this serial killer in this one movie franchise Gargie liked to watch.  
"Why do you wear a mask?" Marie asked. "You wore one we met on that alley right?"  
"I'm saving this face for Hollywood." Casey joked.  
"It just reminds me of this horror movie we used to watch with my best friend." Marie said feeling awkward and stupid. Marie thought it would be best to keep her mouth shut, she'd just say something embarrassing. For some odd reason Marie found herself walking on the alley she used as a short cut.  
"This is where I met him, if you could call that a meeting." Marie sighed. This alley had some dangerous visitors, Marie thought to herself, she didn't like to think what happened in that night. It was one of the creepiest experiences she had had in her whole life, but she only realized it just now.  
"What am I even doing here?" Marie thought. She wasn't going to the ballet classes without her shoes, she _should be_ getting home so she could get them. But here she was pointlessly walking around the alley that would be sure to give her some nightmares.

As they were about to exit the alley both of them saw a familiar figure, however to Marie it equaled a threat, something that tried to take one of her friends away. To Casey it probably meant there was something he could fight, kick its ass, and break it to pieces.  
"Is that what I think it is?" Marie asked lowering her voice fearing that the thing which looked like a man would hear her. It stood right outside the alleyway, looking to the right and then to the left as if it was trying to avoid being followed or something. It was as Marie remembered it from that day many of those came to take Oliver away, a tall man wearing a suit and looking everything with cold and emotionless eyes. Marie didn't wait for an answer. What did that thing do in the place like this? Surely it didn't hunt Oliver, Oliver left the city for a weekend, right? Still, Marie was curious, maybe even too curious, but if those things would return for Oliver, she needed to know at least what they were besides being ugly brain shaped aliens and what did they want with Oliver. Oliver didn't want to know and Marie understood why, but she needed to know, or that's what she convinced to herself, so she decided to follow the thing.  
One good thing that was great about New York was, the streets were always crowded with the people so it was pretty safe to follow someone without being seen, so Marie wasn't too worried about it.  
"I don't think you should be doing that." Casey noted.  
"Huh?" Marie asked, for she hadn't noticed Casey was still following her. Her thoughts had been on playing a detective and finding out the secrets of the aliens.  
"Like you said, you aren't a fighter." Casey pointed out. "What are you going to do if they catch you?"  
"They won't." Marie said, being sure she wouldn't be noticed, not among all those people who were in such a hurry to get from a place A to place B.  
"And if they do, I'll think of something." But Marie didn't think a way to save herself from the danger, she simply believed she wouldn't get caught, she was going to be very, very careful. But in some cases even carefulness didn't do any good.

Marie followed the creep from afar, not too far, but far enough it had no idea it was being followed by someone, but Marie could catch a glimpse of it. Marie felt like she was in one of those police shows she enjoyed watching with her dad. For some reason Casey was still following her around.  
"Not to sound rude or anything, but what are you still doing here?" She asked of him.  
"I just want some action." Casey said truthfully.  
"You like to break some alien bots, huh?" Marie asked.  
"Yup."  
"I see." Marie sighed. No wonder this guy hanged out with Greenie. Both of them liked fighting, Marie thought. Maybe these two were same kind of hot heads or something.  
"So why are you following the Kraang?" Casey asked. It was only innocent question, but Marie didn't want to tell him the aliens were probably after her friend. They kind of promised to keep it a secret and there was no way for Marie to break that promise.  
"I'm just curious I guess."

They followed the man in suit silently, Marie didn't feel like talking and Casey probably didn't know what to say, or he did, but how to say just give it up, you'll get yourself killed to this girl, he had the feeling she wouldn't listen anyway. Sure he had seen Marie to fight before, she did hit big robster guy with her history book and showed she had some courage in her, but that wouldn't make up the missing fighting skills. Besides Marie was _a girl._ A girl who didn't look like she would be able defend herself physically when needed. Well neither did April but she did it anyway. Still that was April, that wasn't Raph's girl.  
Marie stopped walking as the thing arrived to familiar location. Marie had just been here a week ago. It was an ordinary apartment building, nothing more. Still that's where the creep was heading, towards Oliver's house.  
"Boy, it's good old Oliver isn't home, he'd be totally freaked out if he saw this." Marie said aloud without even thinking.  
"You're going after it aren't you?" Casey guessed.  
"Yeah, I guess I am." Marie said as she watched the creature entering the building. There was no danger right? After all if it was Oliver it was seeking, he was nowhere near this place. There was only danger if Marie was spotted, following something that looked like a man but wasn't one. Marie knew nothing she could explain in order to convince herself nothing bad could happen to her but she knew she acted stupidly, even though she tried to ignore it. She looked from behind the corner how that thing entered the building. Marie waited a moment, she couldn't just go barging in right after it, she just would get shot at or something.

Marie had visited Oliver few times before and always she had liked to go and pay him a visit, it felt nice, safe. But not this time. She stood there and listened, it was silent, too silent for apartment building or maybe it was meant to be silent, maybe this place was built like that, Marie had no idea, she looked around her and then took a look at the elevator, it was now on third floor. _That was the floor Oliver's apartment was._  
Marie walked quickly to the stairs, it was the safest way up, if there were any slendermen here they would just hear her coming as soon as she'd take the elevator to the third floor. She had no other way than to take the stairs very slowly, for she didn't want make any kind of noise, or at least she wanted to avoid doing that. As she walked up the stairs she started to wonder, to think, of how her life had changed during few months, one year ago, she was just a girl in ninth grade, she had normal things, ballet, her old fashioned dad, her friends, they were doing normal safe stuff and now, one of her friends was permanently gone and Marie herself had discovered there was some things in this world she thought appeared only in horror movies or comic books.  
_What would you say about this, Liisi? Would you scold me for being reckless or would you understand?_

"I'm telling you, this is where they live." Marie heard someone talking. She recognized the voice it was Oliver's dad. "But I guess you guys already knew that."  
It was silent for a moment until he continued talking.  
"So what are you going to do with my boy anyway?" That voice creeped Marie out, the tone of the voice was calm, some-what amused. How could someone be like that when it was about his son?  
"That is information for the Kraang only." Mechanical male voice said. "Kraang has come to this place which is known as the place which is the apartment where the one needed by the Kraang lives, Kraang is to retrieve the one needed by the Kraang, however the one needed by the Kraang is nowhere to be seen."  
"I don't know where that brat is. He should've been back from the school by now." Oliver's dad said. "Unless he's fooling around with that girlfriend of his." Then she heard steps coming towards her, Marie was standing on the stair landing, she had to hurry, somewhere out of sight, she climbed the stairs down as fast as she could. She needed to hide, but she didn't know where, Marie panicked she looked anxiously around her, she walked quickly pass the stairs, or tried to, but as she was passing the stairs to the third floor, someone pulled her under the stairs by grabbing her arm.  
"You idiot!" That someone hissed at her. "What are you thinking, don't you know how dangerous this is?"  
Marie knew that voice, it belonged to Raph, grumpy human sized turtle who kept bumping into Marie maybe more than it was necessary.  
"Who are you calling an idiot?" Marie shouted totally forgetting she should be quiet.  
"You obviously!" He shouted back. "Don't you get this isn't the place for you!" Raphael wasn't angry at first when Casey called him. He was looking forward to bashing some robot heads, he was slightly annoyed when Casey had mentioned this girl had went after the Kraang on her own, maybe it wasn't even that, that got under his skin, it was the fact that Casey had called her, his, Raph's girlfriend.

Marie remembered it too late, when two men had climbed down the stairs and looked what was hiding there, under the stairs.  
"Well, well, if it isn't the sweetheart of my boy?" Erik Carlsen said, that same slime smirk on his face like the last time. "Does he know you are spending your time with things like this one?" Now he pointed at Raphael. Raphael didn't understand a word he was saying, but he hated the way this ugly old man looked at him, like he was some kind of freak. If Raphael had paid any attention to Marie he had noticed the anger on the girl's face. However Raphael couldn't have understood why she was feeling as angry as Raphael at his best days. Sure she didn't find out why those things were after Oliver, but what she did know by now, was worse. He was going to sell Oliver to those things, he was going to sell his _own_ son! Right now what those things were going to do to her friend wasn't as important, all she could think of, was this piece of crap. He worked with them, he wanted Oliver dead, but guess what, Marie wasn't going to lose another friend. She glared at the garbage man – as she had begun to call Oliver's dad.  
"My, my. You don't have any idea of how much trouble you're in..." He smirked, but that's all Marie heard of him talking, as the grumpy but mainly just angry turtle growling and charging to attack the man in a suit interrupted his talk.  
"Well, I take my leave then." Erik Carlsen said quickly as he noticed that maybe that freak would actually win against the alien robot, or at least he did wield some kinds of daggers as a weapon, and Erik didn't want to get hit by those.

"Wait a second, you pile of trash!" Marie yelled at his back. "I'm not done with you!" She ran after him without a second thought.  
"What do you know about those things?" She yelled as that pile of trash exited the building.  
"My my, your freaky friend has lot to deal with." He laughed as they both had reached the yard.  
"These people never move outside without any company." And he was right about that, at least three of those men had appeared on the yard, however they didn't pay any attention towards the pile of trash or Marie herself, they just entered the building, or two of them did. The third one got its head blown up by something Marie didn't see, next thing she did see was Casey Jones grinning.  
"Is Raph having fun all by himself?"  
"Yup. He's having party inside the building." Marie said sarcastically. "You better get him out before some granny from neighbor flat sees him."  
That pile of trash did his best to disappear from sight, however Marie wasn't going to let that happen, she knew Jones and Greenie could take care of themselves. Marie knew she would only be on their way besides she had more important things on her mind.  
"Don't think that you're getting away before I get my answers!" She yelled angrily. To her surprise old drunk stopped running, Marie thought he couldn't run anymore, maybe he had a bad condition or something.  
"What are they?" Marie yelled, people walking pass them kept staring at the braid headed Marie but she didn't give a crap, it wasn't like they _actually_ understood what she was saying.  
"That's not any of your business little lady." Erik Carlsen snorted.  
"If it includes my friend it is my business!" Marie said firmly.  
"You really think you can protect him?" Pile of trash asked, amused. "A weak girl like you can't do a thing against these guys. What they want, they get."  
"But you're helping them." Marie said with accusing tone in her voice.  
"Why wouldn't I be? If they want the brat, I'm not going to stop them." He sounded so uncaring, cold even. Didn't he care about Oliver at all?  
"Why do they want Oliver?" Marie demanded to know.  
"None of your business, sweet heart." Slimy smile came to his lips, but his eyes remained cold, emotionless... no not emotionless, there was something in those eyes, but it was far from caring.  
"I won't let them have him." Marie said firmly.  
"Oh, but you can't stop them." The man grinned. "Like I said, what they want, they get."  
"I stopped them once, I'll do it again." Marie realized she shouldn't have said it. The grin on the man's face became wider.  
"I heard about it. They said my cowardly son managed to escape. I wondered why..."  
"Don't you care about him?" Marie asked. "He's your son!"  
"No. That brat is no son of mine." His voice changed from amused to cold and deep, it made cold shivers to run down to Marie's back.  
"If it weren't for him my wife would be still be alive."

Marie watched as that pile of trash departed, he crossed the street while Marie just stood there. She was shocked, how could a father say such things about his child? Marie had heard how Mrs. Carlsen had died from Oliver, he had told her, she got sick and died soon after. Oliver wasn't the one responsible. Marie felt her knees shivering, she hadn't met such a person, a person so full of hate that he'd sacrifice his own flesh and blood and would help those things to get to him. What kind of father would do that? It was horrible! Marie felt like crying, it felt so bad, poor Oliver. All Marie had ever had for a family was her dad, dad who wasn't around much after moving to this city, but still he would call, and Marie knew she could give him a call whenever she needed, Marie knew her dad – despite having quite a temper was safe to be around. Oliver's dad seemed to be far from that.

"What are we doing here?" Raphael asked hours later when he and Casey spent some quality time on the roof top next to the ballet studio.  
"Aw, come on, Raph." Casey said. "I know you're worried about her."  
"I'm not." Raphael said. He didn't care, so what if the girl had run away while they were fighting? At least she wasn't in their way during the fight. He only wanted to see the Kraang hadn't kidnapped her or anything. There she was, dancing with a guy who looked like he had stepped out straight from some stupid teenage magazine. Still she seemed to be in seventh heaven, Raphael could see her blushing cheeks from outside, he could even spot her expression and she looked stupid, it somehow reminded him of how Donnie would look at April.  
"Are those guys wearing tights?" Casey asked as he looked at the window of the ballet studio.  
"Doesn't she remind you of someone?" Raphael asked.  
"Like who?" Casey asked when he was done wondering about guys wearing tights.  
"I don't know. Donnie seems to have that exact look on his face whenever April is around." Raphael said.  
"I'm sure it's nothing." Casey said, though it did look like she was carrying a torch for her dancing partner, but Raphael didn't need to know that.  
To Raphael it looked like amusing thing, that girl looked like a fool having that kind of dreamy look in her eyes. She looked so unthreatening like that, so not Karai like.  
"I think you should just go for it." Casey said out of the blue.  
"For what?" Raphael asked, even though he knew what Casey meant.  
"Just get to know her, she doesn't seem that bad." Of course Casey didn't know Marie, but she didn't seem like a bad person after that one talk they had, besides he got the feeling Raph might like her a bit.  
Raphael was silent for a moment, sure she might look like Karai but to think Karai with that expression and completely red face, it would just be wrong.  
"But she's..."  
_She's what?_ Raphael had to ask from himself. For god's sake she only looked like Karai, she didn't act like her, not at all.

Marie sighed as she went outside. She stroked Thorin's fur and looked at her dog.  
"You know, I've just realized how lucky I am." She said silently. "I have a loving dad, despite him not being here. Oliver's is..." Marie was so deep in her thought she didn't even hear this peculiar robotic sound coming from nearby. She didn't even notice a black figure appearing right beside her, Thorin tried to warn her by growling, but still she didn't notice a thing. Then the sword, a katana slashed air around her ear. Marie gasped but that was all she could do, as in next minute the robot lost its head.  
"What's with this city?" Marie sighed.  
"I don't know, maybe it's the thing you don't watch where you're going." Raphael said.  
"Well, hello to you too." Marie said sharply. "Is this the point where you are calling me an idiot?"  
"I'll save it for later." Raphael smirked. "Maybe when you'll go after the Kraang again."  
"The Kraang?" Marie repeated.  
"You know those aliens you stalked." Raphael said.  
"Oh believe me, I'm not doing that again." That was the truth. Right now Marie wished she had been smart and just let it go. Sure now she knew what those things were called and that they were after Oliver, she didn't know why, but she didn't really need to. Not anymore.  
"It scared you that much, huh?" Raphael guessed.  
"I guess it did." Marie said silently.  
"Maybe you should've asked that guy to protect you." Raphael teased her.  
"What guy?" Marie asked.  
"The one you danced with." The turtle continued.  
"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Marie denied, but Raphael could see she knew exactly what he was talking about.  
"Look at how deeply you're blushing." Raphael smirked.  
"I am not!" Marie yelled.  
"Are too!" Raphael yelled back at her, amused.

"Am not!"  
"Are too!"

Raphael felt like laughing, he didn't know why, but somehow seeing the slightly annoyed face of that girl amused him. Surely this was more fun than listening to the fearless leader watching that ridiculous show he loved so much almost as much as his own voice repeating those cheesy lines his hero spoke. Raphael knew it may not have been his smartest move, but no one needed to know about what he was doing, no one needed to know about her as well. Casey had promised to keep it a secret for whatever reason, he had said so before he left to see April. Besides this wasn't friendship, this was... well Raphael didn't know what it was, maybe it was just something he did to pass his time. This wasn't friendship for both of them, not just yet, but this was the first step.

* * *

**A/N Part 2:** Why am I writing another one? Just felt like doing it for some reason. .-. I hope you liked the chapter! I feel like I need to explain few things before all the April-fans attack me with fury. Yes some of my OC's don't like her, they use rough language when talking to or about her. The reason why is simple, they both go through things in their personal lives, with Marie's best friend Gargie it's the new life with his dad and a stepmother he isn't quite fond of, Gargie sees April as a bully and he wants to protect his friend, so he wants to protect Marie. With Hannes, he goes through the loss of his younger sister [Liisi], he doesn't quite know how to deal with it so his grief has turned into anger and he pretty much hates everyone and everything. The reason why he smiled at Marie was probably the fact that she is a reminder of his sister, as Marie and Liisi were best friends. As for April's role in this story.. well she's not actually my favorite character in the show, she was set to become friends with Marie before I created a small group of friends for her, as I don't like April I felt like I couldn't write her well, like her character appears in the show, I decided to drop the idea – but luckily it gave me many ideas instead.

About this chapter the chapter was originally titled "Suspicions" as Marie, Casey and Raph had their own suspicions Marie's being about the Kraang and Oliver's dad, there was also the scene I cut out where Raph and Casey accompanied Marie when she was talking to Erik Carlsen which would make them suspicious about Marie because they couldn't understand what she spoke of. However I ended up naming this chapter "The beginning for everything" at the last minute as it felt more fitting. There's also deeper meaning to it. This is the point where Marie starts investigating the Kraang in order to protect her friend, but it also symbolizes a start of her friendship with Raph.

As for the next chapter, I believe as it is 10th chapter – if you don't count prologue and chapter 0 as chapters it is quite big number, at least for me ^^; I don't know how that chapter will turn out in the end but it will be a chapter where I plan to develop the friendship (I guess you could call it that) between Marie and Raph – or I'm trying to. There will be nothing really important going on before their relationship is developed enough, meaning Marie doesn't meet up the other turtles or anything, we pretty much settle with these canon-characters and oc's seen in this chapter.


	12. Chapter 10 - Broken glass

**A/N:** Here it is finally! It's the tenth chapter of the story! I'm so happy I managed to finish it, even if I wanted to have it done months ago ^^; I haven't had the time or urge to write, I kind of lost inspiration at one point and no, it wasn't because of the episode with Mona Lisa, in fact I don't know what caused it, I just didn't get anything on the paper. Maybe it was because I meant this chapter to be written with Raph's point of view and it turned out to be harder than I thought. After I saw the episode with Mona Lisa *sigh* Well I didn't hate the character but I didn't like her either, she seemed to be hard to identify with. And Raph... somehow I felt he was not the Raph I knew, I was afraid they'd make him out of the character and to me they did. I also found his dialogue bit cheesy. I know I'm one to talk since a dialogue written by me isn't the greatest but at least I try to make it so it wouldn't make a character sound out of character and it's not always easy. I don't know how I will write Mona to the plot just yet, I may have a small idea but I may not be using it. What's weird after the episode I just kept writing and writing until the chapter was finished. Well let's be happy it is!

In this chapter we learn little bit of Marie's background, I also hope we can now start referring Marie and Raph friends after this chapter, building friendship with the two isn't exactly easiest thing since both Raph and Marie aren't the type to trust new people easily. Anyway I hope you like the new chapter!

**Update:** Fixed few typos. As you can see I haven't updated the story since last autumn, the reason is simply this: I've had a busy year as this is my final year in vocational school, I'm set to graduate at the end of May. Now I only have to do this training-at-job period just like in the last year. I didn't have time for writing during last year either, so you'll probably have to wait till summer until I get back to writing, maybe. I'm not sure how long this period lasts - heck even my teacher doesn't know :P

* * *

Chapter 10 – Broken glass

Tinkling of the broken glass. It is very meaningful sound for me. It is what lead me to this point, it made me who I am today no matter how cliché that may sound. It also reminds me of what I once had, years ago. It was weird but sometimes I could still hear her voice in my dreams, shouting: _Kagome, Kagome – _Bird in the cage. Like just now.

I found myself lying on the cold floor of the ballet studio. Had I fallen when I was dancing? Had I hit my head? Wind was blowing on the floor. Did that usually happen? I got upon my hands, for a moment everything looked so unfamiliar. I shook my head, I was lying on the floor surrounded by the broken glass. I turned my head around, it looked like the window had broken. Well that would explain the wind on the floor. I felt shooting pain, it took me a moment to realize I felt it, then I noticed my arms bleeding and my ears ringing. I stood up carefully. I wobbled. Someone came in from the broken window. I looked at the comer, he looked at least bit shocked. Maybe it was just me though. I fell to my knees and Greenie stared at me. It was weird, he seemed always to appear before my eyes in moments like this, or maybe I was the one who bumped into him. Whatever.  
"Is something else going to explode?" I asked. "It would be nice to know so I would get out of the way this time."  
"You are hurt." He said, his voice sounded bit weird, soundless somehow or maybe it was just my ears. Maybe he was bit panicky. Was I hurt? My arms and back stung but just a little. Maybe I was in shock. Kiriko had told me once that when a person is in shock he or she might not know it.  
"Come on, let's not be unreasonable." I said. "It just stings a little, it's nothing I couldn't handle."  
"But those scars..." His cheeks were going red. I realized that in this short time we had known each other we had never been this close to each other, while I was wearing my leotard. Or expect once time but it was dark then so he couldn't have seen them.

Now he clearly distinguished cracks, scars on my back. Those too served as a reminder of what I had once had.  
"Those are old ones." I quickly said when he was opening his mouth looking like he was going to panic or something. Now his cheeks were blushing as red as that bandana he wore on his face, it took me a while to get what the heck was wrong with him, until it was getting colder from my back. Backside of my leotard had get torn. I put my hands around me as tight as I could, because I didn't know how badly my leotard had been torn, just in case it had gone all the way I feared the whole leotard would drop off. _That would just be great after freaking explosion of whatever it was..._

"Is someone in there?" Boy's voice shouted behind the door to the studio, no it was more like young man's voice.  
"Go." I said quickly. "Don't let him see you." And just like that, with one jump Greenie was gone as fast as he had arrived just moments before. I think it was a good thing, since Percy Sanders the ballet prince rushed in seconds after Greenie had left.  
_Geez, I must have hit my head, calling him a ballet prince..._  
Percy's dark blue eyes widened as he saw the destruction inside the studio and me at the center of it.  
"Marie, what the..!" He yelled.  
"Beats me." I said with a tired voice.  
"Are you hurt? Can you stand?" Percy asked as he walked to me.  
"I can manage." I said, there's no way I'm going to portray myself as a weak female when he's watching, I told myself but my feet thought different. I managed to stand for a while but then it turned out to be too much for my head to take on. I felt dizzy, and I just lost my balance. Before I hit the floor Percy put his arm around me.  
"We need to get you to the hospital." Percy said firmly.  
"No, there's no need for that." I replied. "I'm fine, I don't need stinking hospital!" But Percy wouldn't listen to me, he kept walking me to the hall where I had left Storm earlier.  
"Mom..." I mumbled. My dog got on her paws as she saw me coming. Percy on the other hand looked bit puzzled I bet he must think I hit my head pretty badly. Storm barked obediently which made Percy to understand she was my dog. Hey wait a second, had Percy seen her before? I had the feeling he had but I couldn't be sure thanks to the head ache. I reached out for her, the old lady pressed her nose against my hand and licked my fingers. Everything felt so confusing, but Mom was the only thing that didn't.

"Percy I need to get my stuff." I said tiredly.  
"It's okay, I'll get them later." Percy assured me. "But we need to get you to the hospital first."  
"Do we have to?" I asked.  
"Yes." He said firmly. "It looks to me like you have hit your head. We need to make sure you don't have a concussion."  
"Well if we have to, take me to the Waterlily clinic, my doctor just started appointment there, so if you could just take me there." I said sounding not too excited about it. "It's located in Manhattan."  
"Will do." Percy said.  
"And Mom is used to traveling in cars, she won't give you any harm." I told him as it was clear to me I couldn't leave my dog here all alone. I was kind of hoping that he would think again taking me to the hospital with having to take my dog, my furry dog into his car. But that didn't help any.  
He just replied with: "Okay."

Percy drove me to the clinic and told the nearest nurse to inform doctor Granberg that I was in need of first-aid. After that he sat next to me on the bench in the waiting room.  
"Hey, Percy?" I asked of him.  
"What?" He asked back.  
"I didn't cause that mess." He just needed to know that, I guess. There's no way I'm going to pay for all that damage, or my dad is. "I don't know what happened, one moment I was dancing and in another moment I was lying on the floor."  
"I didn't think you did." Percy said calmly. "Something must've happened on the street while you were just unlucky to be near."  
"Like what?" I asked, like I couldn't find anything less stupid to ask. What I knew so far was that if Greenie was around surely those face huggers or psycho robots would be too. I wonder what happened this time...  
"Doctor Granberg is ready to receive you now." Young looking nurse informed me soon after, rolling a wheel chair in front of her for some reason.  
"No, there's no need for that." I said while lifting my hand as a sign of refusing. I stood up to go to see my doctor but I soon noticed my feet weren't feeling up to it, I felt dizzy as soon as I was back on my feet. So they sat me on the wheelchair.  
"This is embarrassing." I mumbled while the nurse rolled me to Dr. Grandberg's office. Now he'd think I was sick or whatever big time.  
"Hi doc." I said halfheartedly.  
"Marie what on earth has happened to you?"  
I sighed. "Nothing too bad, I was at the studio practicing my pirouettes, they just don't go well no matter how many times I try to do them. I was dancing in front of the window and the window then though it didn't want to serve as a window anymore and oopsie."  
I looked at Dr. Granberg, his face didn't seem to know if he should laugh or not but in the end he decided to keep his face serious.  
"Do you know what happened?" He asked slowly. "What could've caused it?"  
Yeah, aliens probably. Oh, come on, I couldn't go saying that to my doctor or he'd send me to a shrink or worse: he'd be my shrink.

"Marie, what happened?" He asked again. He must've thought I had hit my head pretty badly or something.  
"I don't know." I answered tiredly as it was the truth. I didn't know what had happened, I bet Greenie did but that wasn't much of help now.  
"Are you sure you were at the ballet studio?" Dr. Granberg questioned me.  
"Of course I was at the ballet studio." I answered bit annoyed. "Where else I could've been?"  
"Home for example..." He hinted. I saw where this was going, I wanted to raise my hand for face palming but then thought, let him have his fun as little time as it lasted anyway.  
"For your information our floor is so slippery you can't dance ballet on it, unless you want to harm yourself." I realized that was a stupid thing to say because I had just hit my head and I was brought here because of it. It might've sounded like me telling him I was actually willing to hurt myself for whatever reason he saw fitting, which I wasn't but some adults were bit paranoid and had huge imaginations.  
"Just tell it to my face." I said. "I can see you don't believe my word."  
"It's not about that." He denied but I could hear from his voice I had just spoken exactly what he thought of me.  
"You have had few accidents recently." He explained calmly.  
"Like what?" I couldn't help but sound more annoyed, this was exactly why I didn't want to come here. If I was smart, I could've just have Percy to take me to some other hospital but _no..._  
"You had that bite wound." Doctor reminded.  
"Which was a pure accident." I took a deep breath. "If I had been at home I wouldn't have bothered to come this far." That was one of those things, I should've just keep to myself and definitely not say a loud. Doctor Granberg looked at me with worried eyes. _Oh boy, here we go again..._  
"You shouldn't think that way, Marie. If you are hurt you must come to the hospital. Surely your father would agree with me."  
"Well he isn't here right now." I told him.  
"Where is he?" The good doctor asked.  
"Can we just go through with it?" I asked annoyed. "I'm in pain you know..." Which wasn't actually true, sure my head hurt a little, but it wasn't nothing I couldn't handle. But at least it made him to remember I came here as his patient not as someone who needed to be interrogated.  
He started examine me, noting that I had small bump near my forehead, then he cleaned the cut wounds I had received from the breaking glass.  
"Where is your father?" He asked again.  
"He's in Russia, hunting trip." I said shortly.  
"Has he been away for long?" Was the next question.  
"A while." I said.  
"So you're living alone?" Which was more of statement than a question.  
"It depends how you look at it." I stated.  
"_Without grown-ups."_ Doctor clarified.  
"Well yeah." I admitted. "But I'm doing fine, dad sends me the money for food and he's the one who pays the bills so..."  
"If it was me I wouldn't let my son live alone." Doctor said.  
"Well Gargie is Gargie." I said. "I'm me. I can take care of myself."  
"I'm sure you can but living alone might not be safe in this country at your age." I knew he was going to say that.  
"I know how to lock my doors." I said annoyed. "Can you just say if you found anything wrong with me or not? I'd like to go home."

I may have a concussion he said, I shouldn't be alone just in case. If I was in a lot of pain I should eat pain killers he said. He also suggested that I should go to his place also known as to have a sleepover with Gargie where his new wife could keep an eye on me just in case I got worse, that's the point when I rushed out of the room, I didn't want any sleepovers after the interrogation he just went through with me. I just wanted to go home, be allowed to be on my own and rest. When I was being interrogated Percy was kind enough to get my stuff from the ballet studio. Then he drove me home, I wasn't in the mood of talking so the trip back home was pretty silent. I thanked him for the drive and went inside my house. Roy welcomed home like he always did, jumping on me on and licking my face. I petted him a little, then I changed my clothes and throw my damaged leotard on the floor. I was tired, I didn't want to deal with it now, I'd throw it into a dumpster anyway or something. I just wanted to rest so I threw myself on my bed and that's' all it took. Mom crawled next to me as always, other two made themselves comfy in the best way they chose to, meaning that Thorin went to lay on the darkest corner of my room while always curious Roy went to sit as near the window as he could so he could see outside.

I didn't know how long I was asleep, but clearly not enough. At first I thought it was just a branch of a tree knocking on my window, Roy barked, which was nothing new, he barked at everything he saw outside the window, it might've been a squirrel or just a leaf blown by the wind. Then Thorin started growling, it wasn't his usual annoyed growl he did when Roy annoyed him, it was his warning growl like when something was approaching, something he didn't like.  
"Will you shut up?" I growled at my dogs without even opening my eyes. "I'm trying to sleep here..."  
Of course Thorin didn't just stop. Roy did – for second, then he started barking happily again.  
"Seriously!" I yelled at the bunch and lifted my head up. First I looked at Thorin annoyed and then Roy. Roy was sitting on my working chair, his front paws placed on my desk in front of the window. There was something right outside of my window. I stared at the figure for a moment unsure if I was really awake. I blinked my eyes twice and it didn't go away. I rose up from the bed and walked to the window. Then I saw it clearly, it was none other than Greenie stalking my window. I pushed Roy out of the way as he had started to jump all around me, probably expecting me to let the visitor in.  
"Oh stop it Thorin. It's just a mad man in reptile costume." I said to my still growling dog as I opened the window.  
"Nice to see you Greenie, what's up? Another alien attack?" I tried to sound as hyped as ever but we both knew it was me being some-what sarcastic.  
"I just wanted to see if you were all right." He said sounding like he didn't really care if I was alright or not.  
"I'm fine, thank you." I said. "I might have a concussion but nothing too serious."  
"So what did you tell them?" He asked carefully.  
"The truth." Greenie's eyes widened probably from a thought I actually told someone about him.  
"Relax, I told them I didn't know what happened. It's the truth after all."  
"Oh." He looked relieved.  
"If I had told I just saw a green man, they probably wouldn't have let me go." I smirked. "But honestly, what was that all about? The explosion and all..."  
Greenie sighed. "It's a long story." He looked like something bothered him, maybe not greatly but he wasn't quite the same. I didn't even know him but usually he was angry, now he was in low spirits or so it seemed to me.  
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. Greenie looked at me for a moment, like he was expecting me to yell: "Not!" at his face, but I didn't. He didn't say a word. I stepped aside from the window so he could get inside and he did. Roy was over excited about it and tried to jump on him.  
"Not this fur ball again!" He shouted, sounding like the mad man in reptile costume I knew.  
"Roy, stop it." I said firmly. Meanwhile Thorin with all his growling had walked next to me. He didn't like strangers on his territory and seemed to be well aware there shouldn't be any strangers on the house as my dad had told me not to invite anyone.  
"It's okay, boy." I calmed him down and stroked his fur.

"There should be some fortune cookies left in the kitchen." I told Greenie as I didn't know what to say to him. I closed the window and Roy upon hearing the words _"cookies"_ and _"kitchen"_ took a fast start, running straight to downstairs.  
"Well that was fast." Greenie said.  
"Yeah. Roy gets over excited when he hears there's something to eat in the kitchen." I smiled. "He's such a puppy."  
"Here I thought all the dogs were crazy about food." Greenie noted.  
"Most are." I told him. "But these two are getting old so they tend to be calmer about it."  
We went to the kitchen which was pitch dark as I hadn't put lights on when I returned home. I wasn't sure if I should put lights on, someone could see Greenie, someone who was out walking a dog and would walk near our house, then again who would be out in this hour? I was just being paranoid, so I put the lights on. First thing that stroke my eyes was that huge pile of dishes on the draining board.  
"That's a nice surprise for my dad." I told Greenie. "Maybe he thinks twice before leaving me for this long."  
I took a cookie jar from the kitchen cabinet and placed it on the table. We both sat down on the chairs placed around the table, Greenie facing me. And Roy looking up on us waiting for a treat.  
I didn't know if I should say something or not. Maybe I should wait for him to say something.  
"You really aren't hurt?" He asked.  
"No. Only thing I got was a simple bump on my forehead and few scratches." I told him cheerfully. I felt like he really needed to hear someone being cheerful. I heard someone saying it could cheer someone up but I doubt it was true.  
"So you didn't get those scars tonight?" He asked carefully.  
"Nope. I got them few years back, but that's not why you are here right?" I didn't like talking about myself, no if it came to these _accessories_ on my skin.  
Greenie was silent for a moment, staring at his hands. He looked like he was a guilty of something.  
"Don't tell me you caused the explosion or whatever it was." I was waiting for him to deny it big time, but he didn't say anything at first.  
"I didn't mean it to happen." He finally said with a silent tone. "I was just fighting and I trying to dodge a hit."  
"Was it those aliens again?" I asked.  
"Yeah." He said. Now that I think of it those creeps had some kind of laser guns, that kind of weapon, or it's bullet whatever it was really called I had no idea, but it surely would break windows easily.  
"I didn't even think there could be someone inside. I didn't even think there could be anything that could break so easily."  
I looked at him, again I didn't know what it was I should be saying, that it wasn't his fault without knowing the full story?  
"I wasn't thinking." He said firmly. "It happens sometimes when I'm fighting."  
I nodded, I knew the feeling, I sometimes forget all my surroundings when I'm dancing, when I really am focused on perfecting my moves, just like today.  
"I was angry at someone and I wanted to show him I could be better than him." He said tiredly. "I was just fed up with his constant nagging of how I should listen to him."  
That sounded too familiar, sometimes I felt frustrated because certain someone I didn't want messing my life kept nagging and nagging of how I do things or how I shouldn't do them.  
"I know the feeling." I sighed. "Sometimes it's hard to people just let you do the things your way and they keep nagging and nagging of how they know better and you should be the one listen to them because they happen to be older or what so ever."  
"Exactly." Greenie said. "The worst thing is if I had listened to him none of that would've happened."  
"But no one was seriously hurt." I told him. "I was the only one inside that room."  
"But you were still hurt right?" Greenie stated.  
"Aww, I didn't know you cared." I said sounding over surprised.  
Greenie opened his mouth I bet he was going to say something at least bit rude, but he was interrupted by the ringing old phone. I looked at the clock it was around ten.  
"Who could it be at hour?" I sighed. "Wait a moment." To be honest I was more interested at whatever Greenie had to say than a phone call which probably was nothing more than a wrong number anyway.

"Yeah?" I answered the phone and soon face palmed, because the caller was none other than my persistent doctor.  
"Marie, I really think you shouldn't be alone. Having a concussion could be..." I didn't hear what he said because there was a loud noise coming from the kitchen.  
"Get off of me stupid fur ball!" Ouch, didn't he figure out anything nastier to say?  
I was standing on the hallway where you could go to the kitchen and now I really wanted to see what had happened so I leaned myself so I could see into the kitchen. Roy looked pleased with himself as he was now sitting on Greenie who was lying on the floor. I couldn't help but giggle just a bit because his expression was much more than a worth of seeing.  
"So not funny." Greenie growled silently.  
"What was that?" The phone I mean my doctor asked.  
"Roy's just playing." I said, but I couldn't hide my amusement.  
"Are you alone right now or is there someone with you?" It's none of your business I wanted to answer to that since it _wasn't_ none of his business anyway, but I figured I could get rid of him faster If I just said the truth more or less.  
"Yeah."  
"New friend of yours?" Now that's nothing of your business either, I thought.  
"Yeah, I guess you could call him that." I agreed. "Look Roy is kind of pestering him so I got to go..." Then I just hang up the phone.

"Well what do we have in here?" I teased Greenie after I returned to the kitchen.  
"Very funny." Greenie growled. "Just tell him to get lost!"  
"Now now, Roy is just saying hi." I laughed. "Come on boy, I don't think Greenie likes you sitting on him." Roy obeyed me that much but in return demanded some stroking.  
"You aren't hurt right?" I asked from Greenie.  
"Why would I be?" Greenie asked clearly not caring about it.  
"Oh, right." I sighed as I remember who I was talking to. "I forgot you were bullet proofed."  
He smirked at me, for some reason, maybe I was being funny without knowing it. He stood up and we sat around the table once again.  
"I was wondering." He said, I was amazed it was Greenie who talked first after our last conversation. "Those scars of yours..."  
"Look pretty ugly don't they?" I sighed. "I knew you would ask. Everyone does at some point." I smiled at him, well at least he was s man enough to ask unlike my fellow ballet dancers they just wondered it by themselves whispering not being brave enough to ask. Now they just made fun of me, I guess they wanted it to be so, so they could have their fun.  
"Look you don't have to tell me, I was just wondering." Greenie said trying to sound as careless as he could.  
"It's okay, I might as well tell you." I smiled at him and offered the cookie jar at him. Greenie took one fortune cookie and looked at me.  
"Do you remember when you and Jonesy were hunted by those robots near my house?" I asked.  
"Yeah, so what?" Greenie asked.  
"I sort of panicked." I told him. "It was because of my scars."  
"Did you think the Kraang would burst into laughing if they'd see them?" Greenie asked sarcastically.  
"They were re-opened once, because the person who sewed me back together did very sloppy work." I said distantly. "I don't remember what happened I only remember it hurt like hell. I know it can't happen again but still." I stopped talking for a while I sounded like a fool. Of course it couldn't happen again, Marie you fool, why are you telling him this?  
"What happened?" Greenie asked silently. "How did you got hurt in the first place – If you don't mind me asking."  
I closed my eyes and sighed.  
"I got someone angry, I was supposed to dodge, but I was too slow and I got cut." I said silently. "Somehow I managed to fall through a window after that and I was taken to the hospital."  
Greenie didn't say a thing, his green eyes just kept staring at me. He must be thinking I'm making this up.  
"I'm not lying." I said firmly.  
"How old were you?" He asked, I could hear he was at least bit shocked.  
"Eleven." I answered.  
"Was it your dad?" I knew he was going to ask that, since he didn't know a thing about my dad.  
"No. I hadn't even met him when that happened." I said. "Besides it was an accident."  
"It doesn't sound like an accident." Greenie said. He took a small sheet of a paper containing fortune telling out of the cookie. I didn't know what I could reply to him. I could go insisting it had been an accident but if he didn't believe it to be so it was his problem not mine. I took a cookie from the jar and did the same thing as Greenie.  
He rolled his eyes as he had checked what cookie thought of his future.  
"I take it wasn't your dad calling you." Greenie said, probably wanting to change the subject.  
"No, it was my doctor telling me I shouldn't be alone, I might've hit my head, just stating the obvious." I told him. "So I kind of lied to him."  
"What did you tell him?" Greenie asked.  
"Well he asked if I was alone and I told him I was with a friend." I said awkwardly.  
"That's not so bad." Greenie smirked. "Aren't we being friendly here?"  
"I guess we are." I said while eating my cookie.  
"It would be great if you'd learn my name instead of calling me a vegetable." Greenie said.  
"Did I call you that?" I asked jokingly. "Ralph was it?"  
_"Raph."_ He corrected me.  
"Sorry I have a bad name memory." I stated the truth and smiled at him. "So what was your fortune according to the cookie?"  
Greenie – I mean Raph looked at the paper for a second then he said firmly: "There is no way I'm reading this a loud."  
"Come on, it can't be that bad." I persuaded him. "I'll read you mine."  
"No." He said.  
"Come on, don't be a baby." I teased him. "It can't be that bad."  
"I'm not being a baby..." He mumbled. I pushed my chair back and stood up. I circled behind him so I could see what the paper said.  
"What are you doing?" He asked while I was doing it.  
_"You have met a person who will play a big part in your life."_ I read. "How sweet."  
"What did yours say?" Raph asked in kind of grumpy way.  
"I have no idea." I said as I circled back to my seat. I turned small sheet around and read. _"Don't be afraid of showing people you know the real you."_  
"Well that was mysterious." Raph commented. "Any idea what it meant?"  
"Nope." I said with a smile. "Besides these things aren't meant to be taken seriously."

Roy decided he wanted a treat so he decided to try his fine art of begging. He started looking at us with what he thought was his most adorable gaze.  
"What's with him?" Raph asked.  
"He's just after a treat." I explained. "I guess it wouldn't hurt him." I took a cookie from the jar but before I could remove the sheet of paper placed inside the cookie Roy jumped on me to get his cookie and managed to take a little bite with him before I pushed him off of me.  
I was going to yell "no" at him but instead I just sighed tiredly and removed the paper. "Would you look at that? _Be careful of what you eat_." I read the paper and threw the treat to Roy and he caught it on the midair.  
"That's fitting." Raph commented on the paper. He smiled, I smiled back at him. It felt good, or more like we were friends instead of two people who kept bumping into each other after being chased by a creepy face hugger robot or something. I watched him as he ate his cookie, despite his appearance he seemed so human. My dad had often told me not to judge anyone by his or hers appearance. After all he didn't seem like a bad person.  
"Well I better go now." Raph said. "It's getting late."  
"I guess I'll see you around, Raph." I said. I walked him to the door. "Have a good night." I said knowing how stupid that sounded.  
"You too, Marie." Raph answered sounding his usual not caring self. I watched as he disappeared into the darkness. I closed the door and sighed. My head hurt.

I walked to the bathroom, that's where we kept pain killers, inside the medicine cabinet. I might as well take one and after that head to bed. I filled a mug with water. I watched the surface of water getting slowly but surely frozen and then it would just melt. I know it was just a stupid fortune cookie but there's no way I'd let anyone know the real me. No way. I drank the water as I took the pill and then headed back to bed.

**A/N part 2:** Since I haven't figured out in what kind of situations I'll put these two (Marie and Raph) I kind of want to ask help here. Here's a question: What would you like to see in the future regarding this story and its characters. I have thought of some plot points for developing the friendship between two main characters but I could use some help. And yes I am going to keep developing their friendship before I even think of writing something even slightly romantic. I guess I'm not into those love at first sight stories or something...


	13. Chapter 11 - By the river

**A/N:** First of all, I'm so sorry you had to wait this long for a new chapter. This should've come out during the May but graduating from vocational school was more tiresome than I thought so I didn't manage to write at all. Back in June I worked with Marie's segment of this chapter – as this chapter has two segments first being Marie's point of view and other being Gargie's point of view. Let's just say I had the worst summer vacation ever, so full of stress I wasn't able to write anything decent. Luckily I started night school (Finnish version of high school but for older people) and got back to writing after I wrote a paper for my English class.

So about this chapter, I tried to give small hints what the heck was with the ending of the last chapter, I don't know how well I managed to do it but I hope this clears up that Marie isn't some Frozen knock off but something else. In this chapter we also see she has some temper, but hey no one is perfect – at least Marie isn't.

Chapter 11 – By the river

:. Marie :.

You know I've always seen myself as pretty tolerating person. Sure there are few things I can't stand; you know – like everyone else does. Actually there are quite many things I dislike. Sometimes I dislike other people, especially grown-ups. Crazy grown-ups...

It was Sunday, the day when Gargie had invited me to their family dinner. I was looking forward to it, I really was, since I didn't have anything to do. I received a call from Madame during morning and she informed me about the current situation of our ballet classes, there would be none until the studio would've been cleaned up from all that broken glass and the windows had been repaired which would take at least couple of days. Then she asked me what happened, since I was – as she put it in the crime scene, as if I had blown up the windows or something. I told her I didn't know what caused it, because I didn't know, I had a hunch but if I'd tell her there were some aliens in robot suits included she'd never believe me. I wasn't sure if it was so, but since Greenie... uh, I mean Raph was included in whatever it was that happened I'd say there was most likely some evil robots included in the scene. Then she'd go and babble about ballets the company would do during this year.

"I already know about the Swan Lake", I told her. "Percy told me."  
"Oh, that is a project for the next spring", Madame explained. "We start training for it after Christmas, of course auditions are held during November so we know who will play who, however we will soon have try outs for another ballet we will do around Christmas time."

I had bad feelings about this, considering she said the Swan Lake would be coming after Christmas would fall on us ... And there was only one ballet I knew people went to see during Christmas time for sure. It was the ballet I'd been stuck with ever since I started dancing. I sighed painfully.  
"Mademoiselle Blomgren, are you alright?" Madame asked. "Looking through your papers it is assumed you are very familiar with _the_ _Nutcracker_."  
"Little bit more familiar than I'd like to be honest..." I sighed.  
"That's good, so you'll know the story when you'll do the try outs."

_Excuse me, I'll do what?_

"I beg your pardon, I'm not going to..."  
But apparently, "no" wasn't an answer.  
"Oh but you are, _everyone_ is!" Madame said being as cocksure as ever. "Mrs. Inoue told me about this, um humble side of yours."  
What the fuck? I wasn't being humble! I just didn't want to do it, there is a big difference!  
"If you want to do well in this area of work, you should forget your humbleness", Madame preached. Seriously, I started to get why she and Kiriko became friends, they had the same vibe going on with the preaching.  
"How the audience is supposed to notice your talent if you do not show it?"  
"I have a talent?" I asked.  
"Seriously mademoiselle Blomgren, if you didn't have talent, you wouldn't be dancing with us." Madame pointed out indignantly.  
"And Kiriko's word didn't do anything?" I asked sarcastically.  
"Of course it has some weight to it, but that doesn't mean you aren't talented", Madame continued preaching. "And for one I've never seen any of our younger dancers to spend their weekends inside the ballet studio, that should say something."  
"It says I don't have anything better to do at home", I corrected her. "And my _pirouettes_ suck."  
"Yet you haven't given up on perfecting them, that says a lot about you."  
_Or nothing at all._  
"You are a dedicated dancer, Mademoiselle Blomgren, and in my books it weights a lot." Madame said. "Dedication is what makes a good dancer."  
"And talent", I pointed out.

I was dedicated yes, I wanted to be a dancer when I grew up, but I was unsure if I was cut out for it. Have you ever even heard about a professional ballet dancer who can't do pirouettes? Well I'd be the first...  
I ended the call and returned to the park, where I had been before my cellphone had started ringing. Roy was looking at me curiously. I took a deep breath and kneeled down to his level. I gazed upon the white dog and into his warm brown eyes.  
"Roy, I hate my life", I told him and put my arms around his neck gently. I knew some dogs hated to be hugged, but Roy was used to it, I've been hugging him ever since he was very little. I buried my face on his fluffy white fur, I stayed like that for a moment until I lifted my head up and looked at the face of my dog.  
"Would it be too late for me to become the classical nerd?" I asked of him. "You know get fat, play ton of videogames, read comics based on that awful TV show, it sounds nice doesn't it?"  
Roy licked my nose and did what I considered to be his cheeky smiling face, with him sticking out his tongue as if he was showing it to me like a little kid that had just won an argument against his or her sibling.  
"Silly you", I whispered to him and kissed his forehead. "Come on, let's go."  
It was starting to be the time we should be heading to my friend's place, after all who'd want to miss a family dinner right?

Gargie lived in one of those houses that he called idyllic, it was quite large house made from bricks, with white door and window frames. They had a large yard and garage just like we had, but this house was one of those fancier ones unlike ours that was more like the simpler model of this house, some-what resembling our old house back in the country I saw as my home land. This house however was nothing like the simple Granberg residence back in our home town, where it had been cozy, medium sized house with yellow painted walls and red roof and a small yard. Well Dr. Granberg wanted to have a fresh start for one and this clearly was it. I looked at Roy nervously, I wasn't sure if I should've worn something better than my usual outfit of baggy pants and a jumper, but to me family dinners were just normal dinners with my small family where you didn't need a fancy dress, however I was unsure of how they did things in America. Roy let out a squeak, probably letting me know he was as clueless about the situation as I was. I sighed and rang the doorbell.

Upon waiting for someone to open the door, me and Roy shared a stare, I guess I was bit nervous, yes I had visited Gargie many times before but I wasn't expert on these family dinners, I just hope it's nothing like those dinners at Gargie's mom, when I stayed for the night and we'd have dinner together with Mrs. Granberg sulking and giving me death glares. I petted Roy's head.  
"This is going to be nothing like it."

For few minutes of waiting someone came to open the door, that someone was Gargie's stepmother Irene, who like always welcomed me with a pleasant smile.  
"Hello, Marie. I'm so happy you could come."  
If there was something I liked about the new wife it was the fact she was sincerely happy and nice unlike Gargie's mom, who might've told me it was nice of me to come but she never meant it and kept looking at me like I had done something to insult her.  
"I've learned never to say no when I'm ordered a free meal", I smiled at her. "Thanks for inviting me."  
"You're welcome", She smiled at me warmly. "Please, do come in." Then she petted Roy and told him how gorgeous he was, Roy being such a gentleman waved his tail and licked her hand as thanks. I found Gargie sitting in the kitchen with awfully bored expression on his face.  
"What's up?" I asked when I sat down on the other side of the table.  
"You know, how I hate these family dinners, don't you, Marie?" He asked. "Remember that last one we had?"  
"One with your mom bursting into tears and threating to sue your dad?" I asked. "Who could ever forget?"  
"My mom was hell of an actress, wasn't she?" Gargie smirked, however he didn't sound too happy.

For my friend's sake, I'd like to say everything went smoothly, we had a fun time and the food was delicious, but why would I be telling you this story, if everything went perfectly?

It all went downhill as we sat around the dinner table, me, Gargie, Dr. Granberg and his wife. She had prepared baked potatoes and roasted chicken for us, that smelled wonderful. However, before we had a chance to start, Dr. Granberg said, out of nowhere:  
"Marie, I contacted Kiriko quite recently."  
"Why?" I asked, not suspecting anything. They were old buddies, and used to be in medical school together and remained friends afterwards so it wouldn't be totally out of character for them to contact each other at times.  
"Well to be honest, I'm quite worried about you", he said. Gargie looked at me and opened his mouth to say something, but he didn't have time to say anything before his dad continued.  
"You have had quite few accidents recently, that's enough to be alar..."  
"I had TWO accidents", I corrected him. "And those have nothing to do with you!"  
"Well as your doctor, it's my duty to inform your guardian..." He tried to explain.  
"Kiriko isn't my god dammed guardian", I said slightly annoyed.  
"I couldn't get in touch with your father..." He said, clearly trying to use it as an excuse.  
"So you decided tattle little bit with your old friend", I snorted. "What was it about? Has little Marie been acting suicidal to you, since she has had two little accidents?"  
"Well I.."  
"Dad, will you just shut up?" Gargie asked, clearly annoyed.  
"Come on, say it at my face!" I yelled.  
"Well I think you might have hurt yourself by accident or not..."  
"Are you saying I like to hurt myself on purpose?" This is where I got up.  
"Well I didn't mean that..." Of course our good doctor tried to redeem himself, but it wouldn't be of any help as those words had already come out of his mouth.  
"Dad..." Gargie tried to make his dad to shut up.  
"Reima, couldn't this wait..." Even his wife was uneasy about this talk, argument whatever it was starting to be. I felt the anger bursting inside of my stomach just like a volcano.  
"What the fuck gives you the right to put your nose into my business anyway?" I asked of him, even though I already knew the answer. _Because I'm an adult, and you are not, you are just a stupid teenager!_  
That was when Irene stood up too, I could tell she was upset of how this was going to be.  
"Please just calm down", she said, trying to make a peace between a random teenager who happened to be the best friend of her stepson. "You can discuss this later, let's have a dinner first."  
"I'm not hungry" I said, I heard the chair behind me felling to the floor as I left. Roy followed me without an order, I heard my best friend calling out for me, but I didn't care, not now.

When I was like this, I shouldn't be around other people. Like I said I consider myself being pretty tolerating person. I don't get mad that often, but like many people, there are few things I can't tolerate, one of them being other people, especially grown-ups putting their noses where it doesn't belong.

I felt it in my gut as I ran pass the street, Roy by my side, that I was going to explode. Or rather, something was going to explode, something that I may or may not have a control of. That's why I shouldn't be around people, not when I was like this.

I heard the water purling inside my ears, it felt deafening. Roy looked at me anxiously, because he knew what it was that was wrong with me. Then I stumbled and fell right into the puddle filled with dirty water.  
I cursed loudly, people passing by me kept staring at the foreigner girl yelling strange words, but being as the busy people often were, they wouldn't stay and watch, luckily. Luckily this city was a busy one, so no one would notice a simple puddle filled with frozen water. Roy sat down beside me and licked my face. I guess it was his way of saying _it's alright, no harm done._ I stood up, my jacket was wet from the dirty water, but that didn't matter, I just needed to get myself somewhere away from here.

The question you are probably thinking is, _what the heck is going on? _Or:_ just what is wrong with this girl? _Let me just say one thing: I wish I knew.

Soon I found myself sitting in the safest place, or rather a place people didn't come to, because they either knew about the place beside the river and didn't care about it or they didn't like the place. But I liked it, I liked the sound of water flowing, unless it tries to deafen me. I sat by the water as I always did, Roy sat next to me for a minute until he decided it was too boring and went to run in the water instead. I sighed as I looked at my dog fooling around, I wonder if he worries about anything. I placed my hand around my chest, where my jacket was the wettest from felling into that puddle. I started to think about warm things, which wasn't completely easy since during that moment I mostly thought of dark thoughts. What was wrong with adults? Seriously, if my dad thinks I can manage on my own, end of the business! I don't understand why he had to mix Kiriko in all of this anyway. Can't he understand how difficult person she can be? She just nags, nags and nags and when she finds out little Marie has lied to her about her dad being home she's pretty much going to kill me. Or worse: She's going to come here and live with me. I'd rather take on those aliens than Miss. Inoue Kiriko living in the same house as I did.

Roy let out a surprised squeak and hurried out from the water. I sighed.  
"Sorry, Roy", this is just what happens when I get bit too angry. I need to calm down, before I'd froze the entire place or something. Luckily this time it was only ice water, not an actual ice. Still, this was no good. I needed to do something. Something to get my mind off of things. I opened my bag and took out my worn out ballet shoes, I always carried them with me, it was a habit of mine. Ballet was the one thing that got my mind out of things, so I just wanted to do what I always did. I changed shoes and stood _en pointe._

_Come on girl, you need to calm yourself down, now. Just breathe, in and out, in and out. Clear your mind. Think of happy thoughts. Or don't think anything at all. _

_Kagome, Kagome. The bird in the cage, when will you come out?_  
_In the evening of the dawn, the crane and the turtle slipped-_

"What are you doing?" Someone asked, shattering my concentration for the memory that popped into my head. I lost my balance and my knees started to tremble and I began to fall. I opened my eyes and noticed I was on my way down to the river but someone pulled me – probably by the hood of my jacket, away from the edge.

I looked behind my shoulder, and saw, I guess my new green friend.  
"If it ain't my new friend mad man in reptile costume", I said.  
"You managed to forgot my name already?" Green eyed turtle asked.  
"Not really", I said. "I just didn't think I'd bump into you today."  
"Well I didn't plan for it either", he said as he took a step back because my dog was too excited to see someone he apparently liked. Roy started barking joyfully as if this was the best thing ever. Like Roy often did when I'd return home, he started jumping all around him.  
"What's with him?" The turtle asked of me.  
"I guess he just likes you", I said. "So what's up? Don't tell me aliens are attacking again."  
"Not that I know", he said while waving his arm carelessly. "I was supposed to meet up with Casey, but he got grounded or something."  
"I see", I said and sat down. "So you were just in the area?"  
"I kind of heard you when I was passing by and since you were just standing here I thought..." The turtle explained.  
"That you could sneak up on me?" I guessed with a smiling face.  
"I just wanted to know what's with standing on your toes and singing", he defended himself. "I just wanted to see if your head was doing alright."  
"Aw, how sweet of you", I said probably sounding too dramatic that I meant to. He was about to answer me and judging by his slightly annoyed expression it was probably going to be something less nice, however Roy got between him and his words.

Roy was still happily jumping all over him, waving his tail and all. It seemed to annoy the green guy the most so he went and growled:  
"Cut it out will you?"  
And Roy did, in his way. Kind of. He jumped on him, so the green eyed turtle fell down to his shell.  
"And so he did", I smirked. Roy looked at me happily, as if he had just done something amazing. However, Raph being under the hyper active dog, didn't look like he approved so I made a hand gesture, for Roy to understand to come back to my side. He knew these hand gestures so he did leave the poor turtle alone and ran towards me.  
"Sit", I told him, and obediently the white dog did, never releasing his gaze from me.  
"Well would you look at that, he actually did what you told him to", I could detect a tiny tint of amazement on Raph's voice.  
"You didn't think he would?" I asked, smiling.  
"It seemed so, after all he seems to do the opposite you tell him to." Raph noted.  
"You aren't wrong there" I admitted. "Roy can be difficult at times, but usually he behaves."  
"What's usually?" The turtle asked.  
"When we go for walks, he likes to explore but he doesn't really mind other dogs. He only acts this way around the people he likes." Roy of course had to make this point clear so he let out a little bark. I laughed and petted his head. Raph looked us a while before he decided to sit down as well. He didn't come and sit right next to me but kept his distance.  
"Shouldn't you be on your ballet lesson or something?" Raph asked.  
"We don't have lessons during weekends, but I kind of do go there just to practice", I admitted while smiling awkwardly. "However since that thing happened with the windows the lessons are cancelled until they have been fixed, so I couldn't go there today."  
"So why couldn't you just take it easy for a day and stay home?" He asked.  
"Because I don't like staying there", I admitted.  
"Is it because of that one night?" I knew he meant the night while back with the brainy aliens appearing at my front yard.  
"Well some-what. But mainly I just would be there alone", I sighed. Of course Roy thought different, he squeaked and licked my cheek as of saying:  
"Don't be stupid, you human, I'm there with you, so you are not alone!"  
"It's just I don't have anyone to talk to or at least anyone that can reply."  
"Where is your dad in all this?" Raph asked.  
"Doing work in Russia or something", I told him.  
"Aren't you bit too young for living all by yourself?" He asked.  
"This is the first time I've been living by myself for this long", I said. "I didn't mind it at first after all dad said he'd be home soon but then it was another week or two and another one, and yet another one."  
"Well can't you just ask some friends to come over?" Raph asked as if it was that easy.

I was silent for a moment.

"Don't tell me you don't have any", Raph added to his sentence.  
"I do", I said quickly. "But they are all guys and dad kind of said I couldn't ask guys to come over when he isn't at home."  
"Why not?" Raph asked.  
"It's a general rule he made", I told him. "I guess he just doesn't want me to get hurt or the house to get trashed."  
"So you're just supposed to stay at home all by yourself?" Raph asked. "If that was me I would been driven mad at this point."  
"And here I thought you weren't actually a people person", I said, or joked, or at least tried to.  
"I could say the same about you, you know", Raph threw it right back at me.  
"Well you aren't wrong", I admitted. "I do like my own space but there's a limit for everything."

I gazed upon the sky, it was already getting dark. I have no idea how much time had passed since my arrival here but I guess I should be getting back home soon. When I was at home I'd call Gargie and let him know I was okay and that nothing out of interest had happened to me after my little... outburst.

"So what was with the singing and toe dancing anyway?" Raph asked.  
"Do you remember my persistent doctor from the other day?" I asked.  
"The one you told not so big lie to?" He recalled.  
"Yeah", then I sighed. "His son is my best friend and all, and they invited me to the dinner."  
"It didn't go too well?" I was going to ask how did he knew but I guess if it did go well I wouldn't be sitting here and he knew it, so I shook my head.  
"Right now I hate grownups with their 'I have a right to put my nose into your business because I am an adult and you are just a stupid teenager!' though he is my doctor he doesn't have a right to wrongly speculate that poor me is secretly hurting herself just because one bite mark and one accident!"

I felt the anger boiling in my gut. Just thinking of what happened made me want to go crazy on that stupid man! If he only knew he would keep his stupid mouth shut! Then my more reasonable self interrupted these thoughts. Reasonable self said:  
_You don't really want him to know. Come on calm down. Count to ten. One, two, three..._  
Then I sighed again.  
"I just couldn't go telling the man that I was bitten by an alien and that I was hurt because those same aliens were trying to shoot a human sized turtle right?"  
"Right term would be a mutant turtle", he corrected.  
"It doesn't make this sound any less crazy", I sighed. "It's not even the worst part..."  
"Then what is?" The turtle asked, though I doubted the matter really interested him.  
"He goes and calls Kiriko of all people. In worst case she comes to live with me and starts making these stupid rules of how I should live and nags about what kind of person I should be", at this point I could tell I was whining and I realized how stupid I made myself to sound.  
"But mostly she's just giving me one hell of a headache."

We were silent. I took a careful glance at him. He looked just like I thought he would, uncertain as he didn't know what to say. I felt embarrassed. _Here we go Marie, just go on and whine about things to a person you barely know, just watch him run away._  
I took a deep breath and congratulated myself in my mind while looking up to the sky that started to show the color of orange, painting the clouds visible into purplish blue.  
"So what was with the singing?" Raph asked. I guess he couldn't think of anything else to say.  
"I was trying to calm myself down", I told him.  
"Don't you do that with dancing or something?" He pointed out.  
"I do, usually but today the studio is closed so I just found myself here", I said.  
"Singing?" I could swear he sounded at least bit amused.  
"I didn't think anyone would be here to hear", I defended myself. "I was only trying to get something else to think about."  
"So you started singing?" I could hear taunting in his voice so I just went and frowned at him.  
"It's a part of a memory I decided to think about if you must know."  
"Did it include doing karaoke with weird voice by any chance?" Raph taunted me.  
"No", I said firmly. "Just a kid's song they all kept singing while circling around me. It was a game of some sort, and not even a funny one at that."  
"So why did you play it then?" Raph asked, clearly unimpressed.  
"Because I was the smallest one and easiest to push around", I sighed. "I hated that game, I could never say who was standing behind me so the game would go on forever, that's why they always made me the _oni_."  
"The what?" Green eyed turtle asked.  
"Sort of demon in old Japanese stories", I told him. "They would place someone in the middle of the circle to be the _oni_ she or he would have to guess who was standing behind him or her when that god damned song ended."  
"If you hate it that much why do you sing it?" Raph asked.  
"Because it's one of my earliest memories, I always look back to it, even though I know I shouldn't", I sighed. "It reminds me of the life I had once."

_Or rather, it reminds me of the life I had before I got those scars on my back._

"Do you miss your old life then?" Raph asked.  
"Not really. I miss some things but my life was kind of horrible so I'm happy I have this life now", I said. "I know I sound ungrateful whining about my dad not being around."  
"I guess", he said silently.  
"So what about you?" I asked to change the subject. "Do you have early memory of some kind?"  
"Sure", the turtle replied. "It's bit fuzzy but I remember kind of loud crash of glass and that I was hurt."  
"So what happened?" I asked.  
"I can't remember", the turtle said. "I guess that's when I got this", and so he pointed on to the lightning shaped cut on the right corner of his plastron, which I hadn't noticed before. I looked more closely to it which I guess bothered him a bit since he moved himself farer away from me.  
"What are you doing?" He asked. I could hear the slightest tint of surprise in his voice. "That's disturbing you know!"  
"Oh sorry", I smiled at him. "But it does look pretty cool, doesn't it? The cut you got there."  
"I suppose", he said after a small pause, gazing up in the sky.

:. Gargie .:

Smoothly talked dad. Really smoothly. You just go and tell that old witch hag your crazy theories about my best friend. Seriously he should know by now that Marie hates it when a grown up starts to treat her like a kid. I know she hates when overly curious adults put their noses into her business and I can't really blame her after this.

"Are you sure there isn't anything going on with Marie?" He asked as if I was being interrogated by the cops, few weeks back when Marie was staying in our place with Oliver over the night.  
"Not that I'd noticed", I told him. My dad is an idiot for most of the time and I can barely stand him. He should just keep his mouth shut and no one would get hurt.

Now that I think of it, I should have said:  
"For fuck's sake, dad! Her best friend died couple months ago, how do you think she's feeling?!"  
Yep, Liisi. Everything should've gone well, her mom had decided to come here after some old friends had suggested it and take her kids with her but. There's always but. Her crazy husband found out and it ended with Liisi dying. Apparently she was trying to make the fighting stop but she got hit or tossed or whatever but she took a bad landing and that was it. Marie doesn't talk about it much, and I don't ask. My dad wasn't even there during that night, if he was instead of fooling in this country with that woman Liisi could've been saved.

_And now he dares to accuse Marie for being suicidal or whatever. He doesn't even know her._

You see Marie has a style of her own. She might be graceful on the stage when she's dancing but when she's not she can be pretty clumsy. That's one of the things I like about her, sometimes she can be easy to figure out, but other times – when you think you got her all figured out, she shows another side of herself. Then there's one thing about her not many know of...

_Marie is not like others. If my dad knew about it he'd choose his words very differently._

That's why I went looking for her, after I gave my dad a death glare. He doesn't know but I do. When she's like that things could get pretty freezing. Marie knows about it, that's why she left. But she shouldn't be alone when she's like that. I could at least tell her that my dad is an idiot and that I don't believe him. Only problem is we aren't in Loppi anymore. If we were, I knew exactly where to look, she would either be at home, or in that old playground that was so out of repair barely no one bothered to go there and then there was old abandoned lake side, which should've become a beach but it never did. My first instinct was to go and check her house, but then I remembered I didn't know where she lived. Knowing Mathias Blomgren she probably resided farer away from the city center. I knew there was even couple of parks nearby but she probably wanted to be alone so she would be somewhere without that many people.

_Now if I were Marie, where would I hide?_

That was actually pretty easy one. Of course she'd be at her dance studio. Every time she'd be upset she'd go to let out her steam in some place she could dance. While back in our not so beloved home town, she would go to whatever places possible for dancing, like that out of repair playground since our small town didn't exactly have a ballet studio of its own unless you count the middle school gym hall which wasn't always available. But this was N.Y the big apple, nothing to compare with that pitiful small town we grew up in. This city probably had many dance studios, but Marie, she would only be in that one studio. I had been there many times before, since I'd like to walk Marie there before going home. It was pretty near to our school too, so I take that's where she'd run.

Expect not. As I took my bike and pedaled to the fancy building, only to see bunch of repair men moving back and forth on outside, some went inside the building in hurry. The building and its yard looked like a mess once I got closer I noticed that almost all the windows were broken and the glass was shattered on the yard. What the hell had happened here? Don't tell me she was inside. I left my bike on the other side of the street since I didn't want to risk getting my tires broken. I walked to the other side of the street and waited for all those men to go and turn their backs on me so I could sneak in and look around. It didn't take long for them to do so, so I just moved myself to the door, luckily the glass on the door wasn't shattered.

I tried to pull the door open but as I did that, I noticed the door didn't budge. It was locked from inside.  
"Hey boy, what do you think you are doing there?" Someone shouted at me using that kind of tone as if he was thinking I wanted to break something or use bit of spray paint to redecorate the place. I don't understand why people always assumed that.  
So I turned around and told the guy:  
"I'm just looking for my friend. I think she might be inside."  
"There's no one inside expect some workers", grumpy worker man with a mustache said. "This place has been closed since yesterday night."  
"This place is a mess", I commented without thinking much about it. But it _was_ a mess, something really big must've happened here.  
"Tell me about it", the worker sighed.  
"What happened here?" I asked out of curiosity.  
"Some kind of showdown between gangs", mustached man said.  
"Gangs", I repeated silently. This is what you get for living in a small town for all your life. I'm not saying we didn't have any gangs. We had some like those so called tough boys from our middle school who did smoking on the school yard and pretended to be bad. Or that high school gang whose members drove their mopeds, smoked and at least claimed to beat up people and steal their stuff but the biggest thing they ever did was to break into their high school and paint some walls with spray paint. This on the other hand was something out of their league. I didn't know anyone who could do this much destruction, but then I needed to remind myself – this is America all kinds of crazy things happen in here.  
"Was anyone hurt?" I asked, just because.  
"There was one dancer inside during the showdown, I heard", the worker said. "She wasn't seriously injured though. Another dancer found her and took her to the hospital."  
Well that sounds like it could have happened to Marie. Sometimes she's just is out of luck.

I had no choice but to leave, there was no reason for me staying here. If the place was closed which I don't wonder at all after seeing what kind of shape it was in, Marie surely wasn't hanging out here. But where could she be? I didn't know where she lived and some friend I was too for never even asking about it. I wonder if Oliver knew about it, he probably didn't but it was worth to try anyway.

_Surely I could call Marie but she probably had turned her cellphone off..._

So I took out my cellphone and looked for Oliver's number. I just hoped he hadn't lost his cellphone this time. It was a thing with Oli, he just tended to lose the cellphone every time I tried to call him. But luckily this time he answered rather quickly.  
"Yeah?"  
"Hey there Oli, how's-"I started talking pleasantly but of course he interrupted me.  
"Don't call me that", he said.  
"Sorry, sorry", I laughed nervously. "So what's up?"  
"Returning from countryside with my uncle and aunt", he replied. "And you?"  
"Let's just say I had kind of awkward family dinner and my dad even managed to piss off Marie", I explained.  
"Pissed off Marie?" Oliver repeated. "Is that even possible? She is always so calm..."  
"Yeah but my dad has a talent of pissing everyone off", I sighed. "You don't happen to know her address by any change?"  
"Address? Why would I..." Oliver wondered.  
"I just thought you might know", I said. "I don't know where she ran off to and I really want to check if she's okay. I don't know where she lives and she's not in the ballet studio."  
Oliver was silent for a moment until he spoke again.  
"I may know where she could be", he said. "This one time she took me into some place that had abandoned warehouse, there was almost finished brick wall and it was by the river."

_I should have known. Being near the water was her thing, especially in these situations._

Oliver gave me instructions about how to get to that place which wasn't much because all he knew it was pretty far from the city center. I had to look for abandoned almost finished warehouses and I found few good candidates by using internet. It was starting to get dark, so where ever Marie was I hoped I'd find her soon.

As I was pedaling towards the place Marie could be, I started understanding why Marie always had a dog with her. She did end her ballet lessons pretty late at night and didn't want to risk running into some weirdos. People usually didn't bother people with dogs – especially if it was as mean looking as Thorin. I'm not saying I was a coward, it's just that I had heard and read bunch of articles about people who were robbed and mugged in some dark alley or some other dark place and I wasn't keen on a thought of that happening to me.

_Still I got to get to my friend._

Actually the place wasn't that hard to find. Marie had always liked more private places with some sort of shelter, it didn't have to be anything big just something where a girl could rest her mind. And something that wasn't noisy. Now this place actually wasn't that far from the city center but I take it this was one of those places no one cared about. It was a place behind some buildings, it looked like a very big yard or something that could have been a yard to a detached house but was never completed. I think that wall of bricks standing near the water line was supposed to be a wall to a house but that's all they ever made. Then there was indeed something that looked like a warehouse, very groggy one at that.

_Yeah, this could be a place Marie would come to hang out if she needed to calm down._

"Seriously does your dog have to be this friendly?" The person I didn't know said. It was definitely a guy.  
"Does it bother you?" Marie asked amusedly. "If you'd prefer my other dog, the one that bit you that one time, I can bring him out next time."  
"What's with him growling at people all the time anyway?" The guy asked.  
"Oh he doesn't. He usually just ignores most of the people who haven't tried to attack me." Marie said stingingly.  
"Don't tell me you are still angry because of that", he said.  
"I was never angry because you just started following me and randomly accused me of being someone else", Marie said.  
"It wasn't that random", he seemed to try and lower his voice but Marie heard it anyway.  
"The point is you saved my neck and it wasn't even the only time", she said.  
"So are you saying you are grateful?" The guy asked.  
"I wouldn't be if I'd lost my head during that night", amused Marie said.  
I felt like I was doing something wrong. It's not okay to eavesdrop, and besides this conversation made me to feel kind of awkward. I didn't understand the thing they were talking about and part of me didn't really want to. Now if that was just Marie and someone I knew, no problem but I didn't recognize that voice.

_Maybe it was some new friend from her ballet classes or something._

In any case I decided to hide – yes what a fine idea, I know but what else was I supposed to do? I couldn't just go there and be like: "Hey what's up? What are you guys talking about?"  
So I just hid myself behind the warehouse. I didn't have to stand there for long. The person she was talking with suddenly stood up.  
"Going to see if Jonesy has freed himself?" Marie asked.  
"Yeah", he answered.  
"Well I guess I see you around", Marie said.  
"I guess so", the guy said.  
"And Raph?" Marie said as he was about to leave. "I'm sorry about whining about my problems."  
"Don't mention it", he said sounding like he didn't care. And then he ran towards the warehouse. And the only question I could think of was: _What the heck was that thing?_

It was completely green and it had a shell. It wasn't human although it was as big as one, actually it was around as big as Oliver and shorter than Marie. And it jumped to the rooftop. From there I'm not sure where it went but it vanished into the darkness.

_What the hell? Was I losing it? Did that just happen or did I just imagine it?_

Yet there was Marie sitting by the river with her dog running back and ford. She seemed to be as calms as ever. There she was her fingertips in the water, as drops of water started to rise from the river slowly like a rain drops but without the cloud and drops falling into the ground but raising from the water.

Now you may think: What the heck is going on in here? I don't know how she can do this exactly; she doesn't know either but it's cool as long as she doesn't lose her cool. I took a breath and slowly came out from my hiding place. Of course it didn't take long for Roy to notice me, he barked and ran towards me. And then he just jumped on me like always.  
"Luckily you are all white fur ball", I said. "I'd see you even if it was pitch black." Then I just pushed him off of me and stood up. Marie was already looking at my direction.  
"Hey, frostbite", I greeted her. "It's nice to see you've calmed down."

Then Roy found my bike behind the warehouse and somehow managed to make it fall by greeting it. Apparently he got so scared of the sound the falling bike made when it reached the ground that he ran straight to his mommy. Marie laughed. As I reached her she smiled and said:  
"Sorry for leaving like that."  
"Don't worry about it", I said as I sat next to her. "If that was me I'd probably done the same. I'm sorry about my dad. He just doesn't know when to quit."  
"I just hope Kiriko doesn't take him seriously", she sighed while petting Roy's white fur.  
"You can always tell her my dad was just making it up", I suggested.  
"And she'd believe me how?" Marie asked. I knew someone as sharp as that old hag wouldn't, especially if it came from a friend whom she had known for years. And Kiriko was like my dad, she worried too much.  
"Luckily Kiriko's imagination doesn't get the best of her", I said.  
"So you don't believe what your dad said about me?" Marie asked.  
"Did you actually doubt about it?" I asked. "I know you better than he does."  
"That you do, G", Marie said as she started rising the water drops from the river once more. "That you do."

_Still..._

"But if something was up", I started. "You would tell me right?"  
"Of course", Marie said. "But why are you asking?"  
Because I couldn't help thinking about one thing. Or well two but who's counting?

_One: What was that thing? And two: What was that talk about him saving Marie's neck more than once?_

I could ask but how would that sound, _Hey Marie I kind of saw this creepy looking guy leaving here, what's his deal?_ No, I just couldn't go asking it like that. I wasn't even sure I saw what I thought I did. It could have been a cosplayer or something. After all the world is full of weirdos – myself included.

With one hand gesture and all of the water drops fell back to the river where they came from and Marie smiled at me like she always did. Her serene smile would always calm me down.  
"If something was up, you'd be the first to know", she said. "After all you are the only one who I could talk to, you know that right?"  
"I know." I said.

But still I couldn't stop feeling like something was already up with her. And I was worried.

**A/N 2: **There you have it. I think this was rather nice chapter. Surely not action filled, there was meant to be a fighting scene at the end but as the chapter was beginning to be too long I just skipped it after all the next chapter will be more action filled. Oh and if someone's wondering where did I get the translation for _Kagome Kagome_ I found it on Youtube – not necessarily the best place to look for translations but oh well...


End file.
